Highlights:

• International humanitarians rely on local actors to deliver aid, but they do not localize by shifting authority over response to local actors.

• A power framework proposes that institutional processes for localizing aid reproduce, rather than neutralize, international power.

• Interpretive analysis of the Syria War reveals that impressive participation of Syrians in aid delivery was not matched by shifts in authority.

• International aid can “go local” by using the labor, risk tolerance, access, and knowledge of local actors while maintaining their subordination.