Recent cases of crisis and disaster responses highlight the difficulties of making coordinated responses when public and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from different backgrounds are involved. In particular, when crises traverse organizational, national, and temporal boundaries, the transboundary nature of crises poses increasing problems for responders. This study examines coordination and learning in response to the unexpected mass movements of asylum seekers and refugees along the Balkan route during the 2015–2016 international refugee crisis. Our analysis uses data from 53 interviews and six focus groups with individuals involved in managing the crisis along the Balkan refugee route. The qualitative analysis shows that coordination and learning change over the course of this crisis in three major phases: chaos, settling in, and exit. While the initial response to a crisis leaves little room for sophisticated coordination and organizational learning, the introduction of more formalized coordination mechanisms can take place at the later stages. By showing that generative learning at these later stages of a crisis needs to be expanded, this study demonstrates the need for creating mechanisms for collecting and conserving knowledge during future crises and for transferring best practices from one country to another.

中文翻译：

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学习与危机协调：来自巴尔干难民路线的经验

最近的危机和灾难应对案例凸显了当涉及不同背景的公共和非政府组织 (NGO) 时，协调应对的困难。特别是，当危机跨越组织、国家和时间边界时，危机的跨界性质给响应者带来了越来越多的问题。本研究探讨了在 2015-2016 年国际难民危机期间，针对寻求庇护者和难民沿巴尔干路线意外大规模流动的协调和学习。我们的分析使用了来自 53 次访谈和 6 个焦点小组的数据，这些数据来自参与管理巴尔干难民路线危机的个人。定性分析表明，协调和学习在这场危机的过程中发生了三个主要阶段：混乱、安顿和退出。虽然对危机的初步反应几乎没有为复杂的协调和组织学习留下空间，但可以在后期引入更正式的协调机制。通过表明危机后期阶段的生成性学习需要扩大，本研究表明需要建立机制以在未来危机期间收集和保存知识以及将最佳实践从一个国家转移到另一个国家。