The Regional School is expected to gather professionals, civil servants  and practitioners from Western Balkan countries, including Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia. It is envisaged as a combination of lectures, workshops, and talks, as well as exchanges of best practices towards enabling diaspora engagement in which diaspora potential can translate into actual outcomes for development. It is designed as a three-day school with a series of lectures by distinguished speakers, interactive workshops, engaging debates, and roundtables, but also with enough time set aside for getting to know each other, to network with professionals and for discussing common future projects and initiatives.

Goals:

Through thematic discussions, the school aims to:

1. To raise awareness about the positive role and contributions of diaspora and migrants towards development in their countries of origin and residence, in particular  related to local economic development and job creation;
2. To showcase examples of the engaging diaspora into migration development nexus;
3. To gather and share tools and resources that can be replicated and adapted in other contexts to effectively make an impact in these areas;

While through interactive workshops and networking, it seeks:

1. To facilitate collaboration between civil servants, practitioners and researchers in order to learn about creative solutions that address local economic growth by engaging diaspora; 
2. To establish a mechanism that allows civil servants, practitioners and researchers to network beyond their local communities; understanding best practices and potential programs that could be replicated in their LGs.
3. To enhance the engagement in development through the exchange of knowledge and expertise;