Participants during their visit to Jerusalem.

 

 

Cooperatives have been an important part of civil society for over 150 years. The umbrella organization of the world's cooperatives, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), totals more than 750,000,000 people, from almost every nation of the world, with members of cooperatives and their families making up over one-third of the world's population.

 

Cooperatives are significant economic, social and cultural structures of industrialized, developing, newly industrialized and post-centralized-economy countries and function in a wide range of endeavors: agriculture, industry and crafts, banking and insurance, consumer goods provision, housing, transport, tourism, education, health, care of the aged, leisure and recreation, music and the arts, newspapers and publication, information technology, research and development and more. In short, throughout the world, people join together in cooperatives in order to create democratic and empowering frameworks for fulfillment of their social needs.

The International Center for Cooperative Studies conducts educational and training programs for cooperative leaders, trainers and managers in Israel, the Middle East and around the globe, focusing on the promotion and development of cooperatives and of people-centered enterprises. We initiate and manage sustainable human development projects and offer consultancy services in these areas.

 

NISPED is fortunate in having recognized experts on cooperatives – who belong to cooperatives themselves - on staff. Rafi Goldman (Read more) , the Director and chief trainer of ICECOS, has nearly 30 years of experience as a senior business manager and CEO of various cooperative enterprises in Israel. In addition, he serves as a consultant for the Kibbutz Movement on the promotion and development of cooperatives as well as serving on the board of directors of a number of cooperative enterprises.

 

Furthermore, being based in Israel - a country whose genesis and development are deeply rooted in the cooperative world - adds to the expertise we offer our course participants and global partners.

  

 

Cooperative Courses Solidify Ties with Leaders, Union & Governments from Africa

In 2007 and 2008, NISPED-ICECOS ran a number of courses for cooperative leaders from Africa that focused on enterprise promotions in rural areas and in factors key to successful change management. Participants from Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria received important knowledge about cooperative management, toured Israeli cooperatives that are experts in their fields, and visited Holy sites in the country.

 

In 2008, in conjunction with our small business division, INCEP-SME, we also ran our first course on Eliminating Rural Poverty. The course brought together individuals from 6 countries, from South America to Asia, and focused on Israel's experience in creating successful and viable rural communities.

 

Our cooperative network continues to grow, especially with our African partners, as more courses and more joint projects are planned for this coming fall and the next year.  

 

 

 

ICECOS works in conjunction with:
• The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and its global and regional human resource development committees
• The cooperative branch of the ILO - International Labor Organization
• Various sectors of the Israeli cooperative movement

 

ICECOS is recognized as a cooperative training center by:
• The Global HRD Committee of ICA
• COPAC - The Committee for the Promotion of Cooperatives
• MASHAV - The Center for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel

 

 

Upcoming Couses

 

ICECOS partnered with the ICA and cooperative movements of Sri Lanka in an innovative project of cooperative empowerment and reconstruction in the tsunami- ravaged Southern Province. The project trained and empowered business management teams of the provincial cooperatives in order to aid them compete more successfully in national and global economies.

 

Since the Fall of 2007, we have begun a new stage of this project. We are currently working with SANASA - the micro finance cooperative movement of Sri Lanka - on a project for rural development.

 

Read an article published in Dec 2007 about our work in Sri Lanka here

 

 

Rafi Goldman, the Director of ICECOS, has been visiting Kenya and Uganda in order to develop collaborative projects with NGOs on the ground. Rafi's visit in the spring of 2008 has included meetings with senior cooperative leaders of the Uganda Cooperative Alliance and meetings in Kenya with senior officials from the Cooperative Bank of Kenya and the Cooperative College of Kenya. While in the country, Rafi ran a 5-day workshop for 25 cooperative managers from the fields of dairy, agriculture and finance from the Mount Kenya region.

 

Rafi also met with senior management teams in Kenya and in Uganda, connected to the Millenium Village Project (MVP) of the United Nations  – a project commissioned in 2002 to develop a concrete global action plan to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people. 

 

Due to the connections, NISPED developed a collaborative project with the MVP on small enterprises and the promotions of cooperatives in the millenium villages. Furthermore, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Swedish Cooperative Center and NISPED for collaboration on the provision of capacity building and management training programes for cooperative movements in East Africa. Together we are now creating joint programs for the alleviation of poverty in rural Africa. This undertaking is part of the global International Cooperative Association and the International Labor Organization's program "Cooperating out of Poverty."

Read about this work here