Narratives of Localisation in Times of ‘Crisis’: Local Intermediary Actors and the International Aid Industry in Myanmar

This article adopts a narrative analysis to explore contrasting approaches to ‘localisation’, and links with power struggles in an unequal aid industry. Drawing on qualitative research with aid workers in Myanmar, we analyse how ‘crises’ provide opportunities to challenge dominant narratives, but can also be instrumentalised to reinforce existing power inequalities. We show that the humanitarian ‘crisis’ precipitated by Myanmar’s 2021 coup sharpened differences in localisation narratives, generating increased critique by local actors of unequal international aid systems. Whilst seemingly working towards the same goals, local and international actors in Myanmar often had different definitions of the localisation ‘story’—of challenges with contemporary aid systems, strategies required, and the roles of different characters. In reaction to dominant narratives that tended to depoliticise and disguise systemic inequalities and injustices, an emerging network of Local Intermediary Actors (LIAs) tried to reshape localisation narratives, highlighting deep lines of colonial continuity in international aid systems. While some international actors utilised the ‘crisis’ in Myanmar to legitimise more ‘technical’ and conservative localisation narratives, LIAs engaged in a subtle form of epistemic resistance. This showcased civil society agency in challenging dominant localisation narratives, and revealed opportunities for and barriers to much-needed power shifts in international aid.