This is not another report on how to localize aid. The Localization Agenda is a sharp, thoughtful indictment of an industry unable-or unwilling-to relinquish control. Marie-Claude Savard exposes how power, knowledge, and managerialism hollow out attempts to reform the humanitarian sector, and invites readers to imagine a genuinely plural and emancipatory humanitarianism.

François Audet, University of Quebec in Montreal

Savard's book offers a timely, critical unpacking of the localization agenda by foregrounding power, knowledge, and epistemic injustice. Through the concepts of gatekeepers, shepherds, and knowledges otherwise, it clarifies the conditions under which genuine power transfer and self-determination can occur in international aid. A must read for researchers and practitioners alike!

Clara Egger, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences

This is a rare instance in which the title undersells the ambition, reach, and importance of the argument. This is not only an account of localization and the causes of its failure. It draws back the curtain to expose how technocratic knowledge production reproduces relations of superiority between internationals and locals. This is a study not of localization but a humanitarian machine that swallows up any and all reform movements.

Michael Barnett, co-author of the forthcoming The End of Humanity

Marie-Claude's stimulating book provides a reality check for an agenda often romanticized yet poorly implemented. It is a necessary invitation to honor the wisdom and plurality of knowledges within humanitarian assemblages, wisdom that has always existed but remains sidelined by those who hold the power.

Nelson Duenas, University of Ottawa, Canada