Strategic adaptation in restrictive contexts: navigating threats and opportunities through advocacy in Uganda

Despite shrinking civic space, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Uganda continue to shape pathways toward sustainable and inclusive agricultural transformation. This paper explores why and how CSOs use non-confrontational strategies, particularly advocacy to influence policy and institutional processes regarding agricultural development. It draws on in-depth interviews with CSO actors, including NGOs, coalitions, networks, and farmer organisations. The findings indicate that advocacy functions as a tactical strategy that shields actors from repression, sustains political legitimacy, and enables promotion of alternative visions for agricultural transformation within restrictive political environments. The implication here is that non-confrontational choices are not merely ideological but represent calculated responses to political threats and opportunities that shape political mobilisation landscape in Uganda. Hence, they can be interpreted through the lens of strategic adaptation, where actors deliberately avoid confrontation as a means of manouvring through obstacles in order to minimise the risk of demobilisation and cooptation while pursuing transformative goals. This way, the study shows how Ugandan CSOs balance collaboration and resistance to preserve the political essence of their efforts and ensure survival. More broadly, this study contributes to debates on agrarian transformation debates by highlighting how strategic adaptation shapes the ethical and practical possibilities for sustainable and inclusive agricultural change in restrictive environments.