Localization Agenda, The: Aid's Failure to Deliver on Its Grand Promise

This book tells the story of the humanitarian industry’s latest failed attempt at reform, identifies the key contradiction at the heart of it, and suggests ways to do things better. In 2016, the United Nations, international organizations and heads of state launched the Grand Bargain - “A Shared Commitment to Better Serve People in Need” - thereby announcing a systemwide reform.Key among the commitments was localization: placing local organizations at the centre of emergency responses.However, today, very little has changed, with most attributing the lack of progress to technical issues, such as donor requirements, contracting mechanisms, and local responders’ capacities. However, this book argues that a paradox within the localization agenda is to blame.Drawing from in-depth research with diverse aid organizations, however, Marie-Claude Savard argues that the real problem is that the humanitarian industry is a territory upon which knowledge - the currency of technocratic regimes - is