Locally led development through country-level CSO coalitions? The case of a climate advocacy program

This article examines an (I)NGO-administered effort at advancing locally led development by supporting social movement coalition building to promote locally led climate action in an East-African context. The puzzle examined here is the tension between requirements of social movement coalition-building and power relations in the development sector. Applying sociological theory on coalition building, the paper considers the specific requirements of coalition building, and what they imply for how (I)NGOs can deal with the question of their power, considering how to support the emergence of locally led coalitions. The analysis brings out how facilitation of coalitions is not just a matter of meeting basic conditions like flexibility (e.g., Craney et al. 2025; Roche and Denney n.d.), but also action, from an understanding of what building coalitions takes – an active role, using power responsibly rather than disavowing it; at once stepping back to facilitate, and stepping in to help make coalitions happen.