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The paper aims to deal with the education for sustainable development (ESD) competences of university educators. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of opportunities for the development of ESD competences in higher education (HE) institutions in Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. In addition, the paper explores the drivers and barriers experienced in this area using a process-oriented approach.

For the purpose of collecting data, internet and desktop research was carried out, which was then followed by interviews with key respondents and experts in HE. The interviews were carried out face-to-face or via telephone. In addition, information collected from the interviews was compared with both data found in the literature and official documents.

The comparative analysis indicated how specific institutional and cultural contexts affect the development of ESD competences in HE in the region. There were differences but also common opportunities for developing the ESD competences of university educators in the countries analysed. For each country, the drivers and barriers, as well as their relevance, were manifested differently and specific key constructs were identified to explain the implementation process for developing ESD competences of university educators.

This paper tried to respond to this diversity of perspectives, contexts and initiatives and attempted to extract the benefits of different approaches to the ESD professional development of university educators in Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. It is hoped that this paper will provide valuable insights into the development of ESD in HE and support the development of ESD competences in the region.

This is one of the first papers that provide a comparative analysis of the ESD professional development of university educators in Balkan countries. The value of the paper lies in its potential to help us to understand the role that different drivers and barriers play in different patterns of implementation for developing the ESD competences of university educators.

The purpose of the paper is to research local sustainable development strategic planning processes and practices in the Drina River Basin (geographical area delineated by the river Drina and shared among Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia).

Research methodology included the analysis of the existing country-based strategic documents and processes, as well as the local strategic documents and processes of implementation in 21 municipalities in the Drina River Basin, including interviews with the representatives of central and local governments and civil sector and a questionnaire-based assessment of the situation and needs in municipalities.

The paper argues that local sustainable development planning, although still lacking the proper methodological approach and facing insufficiencies in institutional and implementation capacities is becoming more appreciated by local authorities in the region.

The findings should help better understand the interactions between local government institutions and civil society in the Drina River Basin municipalities in achieving local sustainable development, as well as the conditions enabling improved communication networks and capacity building.

The paper seeks to discuss the process of performance management and measurement system‐building in the public sector in a transitional country, with particular reference to Serbia.

A short description of the general legal framework within which the local governments in Serbia operate is given, followed by a discussion of the usual, and to some extent well‐known, problems of performance management system‐building and implementation.

The detailed interviews with a number of mayors and senior local Civil Servants pointed out that a number of issues, believed to have been resolved in the Western countries, have emerged as being problematic in the policy implementation process in the region.

This paper not only analyses the stages in the system‐building process, but also tries to explain why “measurement revolutions” may fail in a constantly changing transitional environment.