There have not been many initiatives, especially in the Western Balkans region, that have approached circular economy through a systems lens. On the contrary, there are many small initiatives that are overlapping scope, not leveraging on cooperation, and resulting in lower impact. The challenge-led systems mapping will be the first stakeholder and systems mapping of this scale in the region. The subsequent policy co-creation workshops will enable a dialogue among different stakeholders. The multi-stakeholder approach enables better information flows and ensures a space for joint discussion and opportunity creation. The challenge-led system mapping methodology has been used in other regions, but not in Western Balkans and it is innovative in itself as it is in constant transformation. Its adaptability to new environments has been fundamental to its achievements, and learnings from the Western Balkans will undoubtedly further contribute to the methodology's evolution and success.

Being the first year of the project in the Western Balkans, the initiative is still at the early stage. Local partners are finalizing the systems mapping and consolidating results. In addition, they are organizing sense-making workshops to test the formats and contents of the policy workshops and get feedback and suggestions from some of the main stakeholders.

After this phase, local partners will be organizing policy workshops with key stakeholders. Based on the results of the workshop, outcomes will be analysed and preparations will start for regional workshops to inform circular economy policies through an evidence-based approach.

The team engaged with local partners (SMEs and NGOs) for the systems mapping to develop local capacities and communicate in local languages. Other stakeholders included: national and local authorities, chambers of commerce, representatives from the private sector, local and international development organizations, and EU bodies. The goal was to have different perspectives for the policy co-creation workshop, with the aim of identifying challenge owners and their role in system transformation.

Challenge owners (national and local governments and industries) are the main beneficiaries. The mapping exercise will help them understand the ecosystem and their role. The policy co-creation workshop will serve as a platform for beneficiaries to prototype actions based on evidence-based information on circular economy. The mapping will be used to mobilize other stakeholders, namely development organisations with similar ambitions as EIT Climate-KIC to exchange and have a joint impact.

First result is a comprehensive, clear mapping of the state of the art for circular economy in the region to inform policy discussions and drive the pathway towards Green Agenda goals achievements. It will inform policy and actions, as well as investments and decisions for Innovation actors as KICs based on what the ecosystem is already offering and to fill in the gaps in innovation, through evidence-based qualified methodology.

In terms of KPIs for the mapping exercise, we aim to identify a minimum of 2000 actors across the region and 250 initiatives active in circular economy. We plan to have 6 policy co-creation workshops in the region, as well as at least 6 sensemaking sessions before the policy workshops (although there are likely to be several as they are concentrated on small focus groups) + a regional integrated workshop, leading to 10-15 prototype actions at national and regional scale.

Scattered information has been a challenge as finding the right information in the plethora of resources available has been challenging. We have also found many regional differences – although this has been expected to a certain extent, and even welcome in terms of understanding idiosyncrasies, it has created a challenge for data comparison and creating conclusions on a regional level. Finally, the systems themselves are complex and their understanding will be tough and might create difficulties in defining further actions. Finally, circular economy is widely associated to waste management, hence is difficult to distinguish initiaitives which are relevant for circular economy, but not explicitly referring to it.

One of the key enabling factors is finding local partners that are reliable and engaged in developing the project together. Close relationships with them is a key success criterion. The team organised regular meetings to foster these relationships and ensure that the partners were aware of all the tools and methodologies available to them. Collaborative agreement is also crucial: allowing partners to be creative and to perform the work in their own way, respecting local needs, rather than imposing a strict and inflexible work structure. This has enabled mutual trust for long-term collaboration.

Being still a work in progress, the Western Balkans project has not been replicated yet. Nevertheless, it was itself based on the challenge-led system mapping approach that has been developed through the implementation of different EIT Climate-KIC activities since 2015. Key insights were originated as part of learning processes embedded in several EIT Climate-KIC projects, such as Pioneer Cities (2012-2014), Transition Cities (2014-2017) and Circular Cities (2018-2019), as well as the EIT RIS Programme. The approach was tested in over 40 initiatives in European and Latin American cities, realised in collaboration with EIT Climate-KIC and both policy and scientific actors.

EIT Climate-KIC’s practical experience gained through providing effective guidance on system mapping in different regions has allowed the team to move forward successfully, co-creating practice-based knowledge with communities seeking to initiate actions towards set targets as part of their own policy plans.
The initiative in the Western Balkans is still at an early stage, nevertheless a key lessons learned so far is the importance of understanding the concept of ‘challenge-owners’, including their role, priorities, willingness to collaborate and capabilities.