ABSTRACT
Despite sector-wide support for participatory and localized aid in the Global South, humanitarian aid continues to be dominated by Northern knowledges. This is true even for locally led aid in the context of North–South collaborations. This chapter explores why this is so and what can be done about it. It does this by looking at how knowledge management and aid relationships interconnect – and the implications this has for the effectiveness, efficiency, and social justice outcomes of aid. The chapter’s analysis is based on three case studies of local knowledge management in different disaster settings in Ethiopia and Nepal. The core argument presented here is that, as a result of the vertical way in which knowledge management is often organized, local knowledges become decentred in aid; instead, Northern knowledges are centred – deepening the vertical status quo. On the basis of this analysis, the chapter suggests an alternative approach to organizing humanitarian knowledge management. It recommends three complementary knowledge management strategies based on pragmatic robust action to foster more horizontal North–South aid relationships. This approach has the potential to achieve the goal of localization – the centring of local action informed by local knowledges in aid.
