Development aid organisations are learning new methods to deliver effective aid. Organisational learning theory can offer a new perspective on this process of accountability. By viewing accountability as a relational process, communication between aid practitioners canbecome a field of reflexive or “deutero” learning. This is important for a complex aid environment in which the policies of partnership, harmonisation and alignment require relational as well as technical skills so that vital links across programmes can be made. Irish aid organisations have an apt history, policy and style to make a particular contribution towards learning such reflexive practices. While the data for this paper is primarily intra-organisational, such a category is increasingly loose in the changing context of aid. What is sought are paths to change practice at different levels or at any instance of aid organisational life.