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In the Megacommunity approach, companies, governments, and NGOs reach out across sectors (private, government, and civil society) and join together to take action on compelling issues of mutual importance, following a set of practices and principles that will make it easier for them to achieve results.
Like any business environment, a megacommunity contains organizations that sometimes compete and sometimes collaborate. And like any business organization, it requires structure, communication, and governance. It’ s an approach that admits that certain crucial problems can be solved only by a combination of organizations (a network of networks, if you will) that can bring many different capacities and points of view to bear.
Cities are becoming laboratories for megacommunity initiatives in Europe and the United States. In Rome megacommunity projects being implemented by Rome-based organizations and deal with global challenges of cybersecurity, hunger, and energy. In addition, some of the organizations involved in these three initiatives have come together to form a fourth megacommunity to address challenges in education.
The concept of the megacommunity is explained in Megacommunities: How Leaders of Government, Business, and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today’ s Global Challenges Together, by Mark Gerencser, Reginald Van Lee, Fernando Napolitano, and Christopher Kelly (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
Source: The Megacommunity Approach to Tackling the World’ s Toughest Problems, Business + Strategy