About this note

As international aid models face mounting criticism for deepening dependency rather than enabling autonomy, Guillaume Soto-Major argues that another path is possible. Published by the IRIS Human Security Programme, this note examines the ideological roots of the current crisis, the organised actors who exploit it, and the structural failures of conventional aid.

It calls for a new paradigm grounded in trust, long-term accompaniment, and genuine power-sharing between funders and the communities they claim to serve — one where ethics is not a constraint, but the creative architecture of durable and dignified change.