Rafi Goldman is the Co-Director of Economic Development at the The Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation – Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development. (AJEEC-NISPED)
He is one of the leaders of the co-operative movement in Israel and has spent many years working with co-operative movements in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
He is also integrally involved in Anchoring The Negev,which endeavours to create Sustainable Local Development through Community Wealth Creation in Beer Sheva and the Negev region. He also works with many of the groupings which came out of the summer of social protests in 2011
AJEEC-NISPED recently arranged for a delegation of Knesset members to go and visit Abu Mazen in Ramalllah. They were also instrumental in brokering the visit of a senior Palestinian delegation to the Knesset last month. They are an Arab-Jewish organization based in Israel’s Negev, dedicated to strengthening active citizenship through education and economic empowerment. They run programmes focusing on economic development through formation of cooperatives and social enterprises, volunteerism, quality early childhood education, health promotion, and Jewish-Arab partnership. In Israel, they primarily focus on the most marginalized populations, particularly the Negev Arab Bedouin. In the Middle East they promote comprehensive peace through people-to-people cross border projects, and internationally, where Rafi is mainly involved, they work to advance sustainable human development in societies in transition by education and training projects.
AJEEC-NISPED in the news
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4412143,00.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/Olive-Press/2013/1008/Israeli-lawmakers-pay-President-Abbas-an-unprecedented-visit-in-Ramallah