For the last 2 years, Rafi Goldman, Director of ICECOS, has been visiting Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, presenting the NISPED holistic approach to sustainable human development. This approach is rooted in the values of democracy, people-centered enterprises, individual and community development, and cooperative undertakings.  

Rafi has offered consultancy, and has been giving workshops on cooperative development and values. He has met with many government and bank officials, cooperative leaders, and civil society organizations, such as the Swedish Cooperative Centre, in Kenya, and organizations working together on the Millenium Village Project, to further the elimination of rural poverty in Africa.

In the late summer of 2008, Rafi offered 3 workshops in Nairobi for managers of agricultural cooperatives, for the Cooperative Bank of Kenya and for the Cooperative College of Kenya. From late September to mid October, he is in Uganda, leading similar workshops on the development and sustainment of cooperative enterprises - organizations that are not only people-centered and democratic in nature, but that also help lead to and support sustainable human development.