INTRODUCTION

This chapter has two related objectives. First, it proposes to sketch out a community electricity co-operative model, as a further step towards encouraging participation among individuals in different communities. It aims to build on discussions in the previous chapter by considering, in rather hypothetical terms, a particular option that might be open to diverse communities through their Community Forums. The aim is also to build on discussions in Chapter 5, which proposed human rights as the ethos for electric sector reform, especially to enable more access for the poor. The rather tentative nature of these proposals is because they are presented as a prolegomenon. They indicate, rather than prescribe, in specific detail, how practice should follow. They are not a step-by-step guide to what communities should do or how they should do it.

The second purpose of this chapter is to underscore the importance of co-operation and participation in the pursuit of electricity, something that is linked to and can be built from discussions in Chapter 4 of this book on the social market philosophy. The objective, then, is to demonstrate the possibility of creating a social model of electricity that can avoid the shortcomings of the dominant profit market model, one that creates the atmosphere for solutions to be worked out through the participation of those mostly affected. Co-operatives, as it is argued, provide a practical example of how a community can participate in the supply of electricity.