Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies: New ...

New models to serve and empower the poor■■■■or firms within the community served. Such shareholders may include only a smallminority of the total catchment community, and the voting power of individualshareholders may vary greatly;User cooperatives, in which the users are also shareholders, in general each havingthe same level of voting power;Community cooperatives, in which all members of for instance a village, irrespectiveof whether they are actual or potential users, may be members, and in which allhave equal voting rights; 1Worker cooperatives, in which the workers are also the enterprise’s owners andmanagers;A community owned element in the context of a larger consortium that might includepublic and private interests, and non-profit and for-profit components.In terms of management and member participation, a number of approaches are alsoadopted. While these all involve a certain degree of community control, formal ownershipmay not be required:■■■■■Management can be similar to that of conventional firms, for instance with a boardof directors appointed by elected officials, and hired professional staff;Advisory committees and mechanisms can be in place to ensure that the voice of thecommunity is at least acknowledged and heard;Effective community control can be exerted without ownership per se, through a legalmandate to decide with the owners (public or private) on key parameters of the initiative,such as tariffs, services, reach, etc.Management can be elected, by means of direct and equal participation of all the communitymembers;Community members can directly participate in the activities of the enterprise,through voluntary or non-voluntary work.Community-driven initiatives and cooperatives have emerged in all sectors and in allregions of the world. The formal cooperative model and the empowerment model ofownership suggest a spread of capabilities, though in practice they often coexist as componentsof a single model.The Cooperative Model of OwnershipThe cooperative model has seen great success. Agricultural cooperatives have proliferatedin many rural societies, evolving into major industries in many developed countries. 2 Inless developed countries, notably in Latin America, cooperatives have been one of the mainvehicles for building and maintaining local water and electricity infrastructures and servicesin rural areas.Different phases in cooperative development are identified in a recent ILO report (Birchall2003: Chapter 1). The most recent emerged during the 1970s, at which time a hierarchicallyorganised cooperative movement enjoyed significant, but top-down, government sup-20