Our latest press release shows key figures from 2017 including our member capital crossing the one billion euro mark and doubling of efforts in capacity building. Foreign exchange results impacted Oikocredit's income but were largely offset by the co-operative's internal currency fund.

Oikocredit’s annual report is now live. Our 2017 report includes a high-level overview of our financial results from our managing and supervisory boards, along with our financial statements for 2017.

On March 8^th Oikocredit joined people around the world in celebrating International Women’s Day. We attended an Employee Ownership Event dedicated to telling successful stories of female entrepreneurship. There were many distinguished speakers on the all female panel such as Baroness Thornton; Labour Life Peer, Dr Rebecca Harding from the Economist and Virginia Mead-Herbert, Director of Childbase Partnership.

We also profiled some of our favourite case studies from investee partners that have demonstrated the positive impact gender lens investing can have:

Coopfam (Cooperativa dos Agricultores Familiares de Poço Fundo e Região):  In rural Minas Gerais, Brazil’s biggest coffee-growing state, women used to support their husbands on small family farms but had little involvement or say in the overall business or farming decisions. This changed forever in 2006 when Oikocredit investee partner, Coopfam (a smallholder coffee co-operative in Brazil) began to focus on empowering women to play an equal role to men. Today, the women of Coopfam play a central decision-making role in the Co-operative and support their  families and livelihoods by producing and selling their own special, female brand of organic, Fairtrade coffee – Café Feminino.

We have recently become proud members of three new networks which share our mission to build awareness of the global challenges and opportunities we all face, as well as Oikocredit's role in development finance.  

Green Christian is an organisation formed in 1981 to provide insights into green issues, the ecology and the environment.  The Employee Ownership Association (EOA) represents organisations which are employee-owned or transitioning to employee-ownership across the UK and Ireland. The Association of Church Treasurers and Accountants (ACAT) is a national support charity for Treasurers of Christian Churches across the UK, who support over 17,500 Church Treasurers.

In March, we attended the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association conference at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The event brought together multiple stakeholders across the social investing space. We also attended the 10^th Anniversary of ‘Good Deals’ conference, sponsored by the Pioneers Post. Good Deals is one of UK’s largest events for social investing and ethical business. In attendance were representatives from social enterprises, government, corporates, investors, foundations and philanthropists. Oikocredit was the main advertiser in the conference brochure.

On May 20th, we'll be exhibiting at the Church of Scotland’s ‘Heart & Soul’ event at  Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. This brings together faith-based organisations across the UK and was attended by more than 5,000 people last year. Please do stop by and say hello!

Coming up in June, we've been invited to sit on the judging panel of Responsible Investor to assess the social performance reporting of various organisations around the world, and will be attending the Impact Investor Network Annual Conference (formally the Social Stock Exchange) in London.  We will also be supporting Co-operatives Fortnight by attending the Co-operative Congress & AGM and showcasing some of the work of Oikocredit’s partners around the world. 

Our data for the fourth quarter of 2017 includes capital outstanding, the total number of partners and countries where we invest, and an overview of our funding by type, region and sector. The figures also include households with access to clean energy and CO₂ reduced.