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Abstract How can the NGO–NGO interactions of Global South organizations be better understood and improved? Global South nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been frequently missing from the overall advocacy network. When they are included, global South organizations are less likely to take on brokerage roles that may help them build connections and resources across communities. Instead, if they are included, Global South NGOs often are relegated to less powerful, intra-community brokerage roles. Drawing on Deloffre and Quack’s framework (Chapter 1, this volume), Chapter 6 examines the top Global South NGOs that have been able to overcome exclusionary structures and forge inter-community brokerage connections to other NGOs. A deeper look at these organizations and the structures where they are embedded can help to gain insights into the transformative nature of NGO–NGO interactions. The chapter finds that certain country, community, and organizational factors help some Global South NGOs develop connections outside of their immediate community. A focus on these factors may help innovation and protect against a civil society backlash. 

Abstract Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) are the most common example of networks in international relations. Despite their familiarity, we know little about how advocacy networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are structured. Drawing on the cross-disciplinary concepts of emergent communities and distinct brokerage roles, we argue that the network may reinforce power disparities and inequalities at the very same time that it provides social power. TANs are similar to emergent communities of practice, with some organizations acting as various types of brokers within and between communities. Preexisting resources are more likely to lead global North organizations to occupy brokerage roles that provide additional agenda-setting and resource-allocating power. We build a dataset of the 3,903 NGOs connected through 1.3 million ties occurring through meetings and conferences for NGOs put on or coordinated by the United Nations. Using community detection methods, we identify four distinct communities in the overall NGO network, with differences in distributions of brokerage roles across communities. Examining the communities, brokerage role distributions, and preexisting power disparities can help us better understand the divergent findings in previous literature and conceptualize TANs.