The IRC's Alyoscia D'Onofrio recently read "Time to Listen," a book that paints a picture of gratitude from aid recipients for acts of saving lives and the many improvements that aid has brought, but also coloured by disillusionment. The lesson learned, he says, is that aid organizations must change the way they work.
I recently took the time to read Time to Listen, a wonderful and challenging book based on almost 6,000 interviews across 20 aid-recipient countries (plus the U.S. Gulf Coast) between 2005 and 2009. It represents the single richest resource, at least that I am aware of, of first-person narratives, consultative feedback and systematic analysis of the views of people on the receiving end of aid.