Faced with the imperative of accountability, this article proposes to identify strategies likely to allow both the measurement of results and the consideration of the relational dimension of any social intervention. The pandemic crisis highlighted the congruent part reserved for the constitutive empathic relationship of interventions with people and communities. Over the last decade, new public management has shaped the short term requirement for support for projects and evaluation of expected results. However, highlighting the meaning that inspires local interventions and the territorial anchoring of projects is based on considering the long term and involves a place for discourse for the people concerned. The challenge is first political: introducing new public management imperatives requires action by the State. Is it possible to consider strategies that could push back managerial ideology and enhance the sense of social intervention?