Abstract
This chapter aims to portray why and how WBAA, as an organism, organization, entity, agent, actor, network, … produces emergent effects as a regional entity is a Positive Deviance, as recognized in theory, and more specifically within the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation by Harvard’s Center for International Development. Positive Deviance is one of the core principles in the PDIA strategy—by “creating (and protecting) environments within and across organizations that encourage experimentation and positive deviance.” First we will briefly elaborate on PDIA and its concepts and describe and encode the distinctiveness of WBAA arguing why and how it is a positive deviance for our Balkans. The expected outcome: to inspire leaders, institutions, CSOs, citizens, academia, … to take the regional approach, moves beyond the silos of a country/domain, has functional bridges with developed countries (for knowhow, funding, coopetition, alignment), and shows “how” coopetition within Western Balkans is to be done. If volunteers can do it, others can surely follow.
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Notes
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Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia. *This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
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https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/PDIAtoolkit (Building State Capability and PDIA toolkit).
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https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/index_en and https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/enlargement-policy/strategy-and-reports_en—to be used here and in references.
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https://www.cost.eu/cost-is-a-must-agricultural-research-and-knowledge-transfer-in-western-balkan-countries/, https://www.cost.eu/actions/TN1401/, https://www.cost.eu/actions/IS0803/#tabs+Name:Description, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA20107/#tabs+Name:Description, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19135/#tabs+Name:Description, https://www.cost.eu/cost-actions/what-are-cost-actions/.
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https://education.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document-library-docs/update-western-balkans-alumni-association.pdf, https://www.western-balkans-alumni.eu/category/wbaa-projects/, https://www.western-balkans-alumni.eu/tracer-study/, https://www.western-balkans-alumni.eu/about/Rules_and_Regulations.
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This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
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Acknowledgements
Sincere gratitude to Albert Sese Ballart, Marlene Bartes, and all the appointed persons from the European Commission, Service Provider, Ministerial Meetings participants and all WBAA-nians and supporters for investing themselves into WBAA.
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Petrevska Nechkoska, R. et al. (2023). PDIA in the Balkans: The Western Balkans Alumni Association (WBAA) as Positive Deviance. In: Petrevska Nechkoska, R., Manceski, G., Poels, G. (eds) Facilitation in Complexity. Contributions to Management Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11065-8_9
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