Relying on the study of power relations between International NGOs (INGOs) and local governments during the implementation of water projects in Benin, this communication shows how INGOs legitimate their activities in a changing environment where local governments gain more and more responsibilities and legitimacy to implement projects and to provide public services. In such an environment, INGOs need to reinforce their legitimacy to preserve their position in the development field. The legitimating processes implemented will depend on the targeted audience (local governments or donors) and on the type of sought legitimacy (pragmatic, moral or cognitive legitimacy).

INGOs use discursive means and practices to maintain legitimacy. They display appreciation of their own work and/or critics of local governments to delegitimize them. They promote innovation to stay ahead; they collaborate with other development actors to share knowledge and to coordinate their activities; they advocate for their values and activities to make them accepted norms and ways of doing; and most importantly for their legitimacy, they implement partnerships with the local governments which is the best indicator of their "commitment to constituent well-being" (Suchman, 1995: 578).

With these discourses and practices, INGOs maintain their legitimacy and promote their values and ways of implementing development projects. However, legitimacy is not exclusive and can be granted to others without losing it. So, as social orders evolve, INGOs adapt their legitimating discourses and practices in a way that they not only reinforce their own legitimacy but also the legitimacy of local governments as development actors.

After the paradigm shift from fortress conservation to community-based conservation (CBC) in the 1990s, the dominant conservation approach has become more neoliberal. Today, international NGOs in collaboration with entrepreneurs and celebrities take an initiative of wildlife conservation in Africa, and the governance and representation of local communities by them is a matter of concern as a basis of legitimation. However, the relationships between local agencies and external initiatives regarding that legitimation have so far not been well studied. This paper examines the details and outcomes of "the Maasai Olympics," a recently initiated CBC programme in southern Kenya. It is an athletic competition for Maasai warriors, intended to provide an alternative to their lion hunting tradition. The Maasai Olympics is said to be "an innovative conservation strategy," and gain applause and secure global support. On the one hand, this event is similar to other CBC projects in many respects, but on the other hand, it is different in that it mentions an unpleasant local custom and tries to change it. Maasai warriors pretend that they are traditional animal lovers and that they approve of the idea of the Maasai Olympics. They did so, because they understood that if they embodied the ideals of outside donors, there was a greater possibility of receiving external aid. Their attitude legitimates the Maasai Olympics and contributes to its success, but at the same time, it results in the reinforcement of outsiders' stereotypical views and values, leaving the local people's biggest problem unpublicized and unsolved.