With my chickens, I feel free
30 January | 2019 Last month, a group of Oikocredit investors, volunteers and staff spent a week in Peru for the 2018 study tour. One of the partners they visited was financial inclusion organisation ProEmpresa and its end-clients in Lima’s suburbs. Marion Wedegärtner from Oikocredit’s West German Support Association shared her impressions of the trip. full storyA new operating model for Oikocredit [interview]
29 January | 2019 Earlier this year, Oikocredit introduced its updated strategy. Bart van Eyk, Oikocredit’s Director of Investments, shares the latest details of our updated strategy and explains how changes to our regional setup will help us to better serve our partners with the aim of creating an even stronger social impact. full storyPreserving the future of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire
28 January | 2019 Nearly half of the world’s chocolate supply is grown in Côte d’Ivoire1, where more than a million smallholder farmers depend on cocoa production for their livelihoods. Cocoa is also vital to the ... full storyMeet our Supervisory Board members
27 August | 2018 Eltjo Kok (the Netherlands) was elected to Oikocredit’s Supervisory Board at the cooperative’s annual general meeting in Chennai, India. “I was very honoured to be elected to the Supervisory Board... full story
Transforming tea estates and impacting lives in northern India [part 1]
06 July | 2017 Deep in the northern mountains of India, lies Darjeeling, a region known for producing the best designated teas. What makes that perfect cup of steaming Darjeeling possible, are the thousands of people working on tea estates. full storyTransforming tea estates and impacting lives in northern India [part 2]
06 July | 2017 Oikocredit’s investment enabled Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Private Limited (DOTEPL) to buy three tea estates in Darjeeling, northern India; among them are Rangaroon and Pandam. full storyStrengthening People and Planet [interview]
04 July | 2017 As Oikocredit publishes its Social & Environmental Performance Report for 2016, Kawien Ziedses des Plantes, deputy director of social performance and capacity building, explains some of the thinking behind the organization’s approach to social and environmental performance. full storyKompanion Bank blends capital and business knowledge to create self-sustainable futures
26 April | 2017 Kompanion Bank was established in 2004 to provide loans to small scale farmers, livestock herders and shepherds in Kyrgyzstan. It has been an Oikocredit partner since 2007. However, Kompanion is a bank with a difference because it not only provides micro loans to its clients but also offers them free business development training and technical assistance in order to promote sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. full storyCooperatives, banking and development economics: Thos Gieskes’ path to Oikocredit
03 April | 2017 Today Thos Gieskes joins Oikocredit as our new managing director. With a background in development economics and over 30 years in leadership at a cooperative bank, Thos is excited about the new role with an organization he believes in. full storyPhilippines: Lessons learned in disaster preparedness
12 January | 2017 To help its partners achieve greater resilience to deal with natural disasters, Oikocredit has been running a Disaster Risk Reduction & Management (DRRM) training programme for nearly three years. This week, Oikocredit investors are visiting partners in the Philippines that have put the DRRM training programme into practice. full storyLetter from our interim managing director
12 January | 2017 Dear friends, investors and colleagues, A new year has begun. We’ve taken stock of 2016 (our annual results will be announced in March) and turn our focus to what 2017 may bring. We look forward ... full storyThe rebuilding and refinancing of Ecuador’s devastated cocoa producers
19 December | 2016 Last April’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador particularly affected communities living in the coastal area where the fair-trade cocoa growers’ associations Fortaleza del Valle and FONMSOEAM operate. full storyVideo featuring support for Rwanda's booming coffee sector
01 December | 2016 Rusizi Specialty Coffee (RSC) is a coffee export company based in the district of Rusizi, in south-west Rwanda. Rusizi Speciality Coffee works with 2,000 smallholder farmers and three coffee cooperatives to produce high-quality coffee. full storyImproving the lives of people in rural areas through peanut farming
01 December | 2016 Athanas Matheka, founder and CEO of Greenforest Foods Limited, a Kenyan company that produces honey and nuts, is using peanuts to improve the lives of families in Kenya’s rural areas and to reduce resource-centred conflict. Yes, Peanuts. full storySupporting local producers of honey and nuts
03 November | 2016 “The recent expansion of Greenforest’s business in Kenya not only provides direct employment for the staff working in our production facilities, it creates indirect employment for the local farmers and suppliers from whom we source materials,” says Athanas Matheka, founder and CEO of Greenforest Foods Limited. He is in no doubt about the important role his company plays in improving the lives of Kenya’s rural farmers. full storyOikocredit invests in Honduran solar project
29 March | 2016 In the first quarter of 2016, Oikocredit’s renewable energy team completed an investment of US$ 11 million in Compañía Hondureña de Energía Solar, SA de CV (COHESSA). COHESSA is a solar energy ... full storyTree plantings mark Oikocredit’s 40th anniversary
18 November | 2015 Last week trees were planted in the Netherlands, Kenya and India to mark Oikocredit’s 40th anniversary, in ceremonies that were attended by Oikocredit employees from around the globe. The tree ... full storyWendy Plant: over 30 years of dedicated service
02 June | 2015 Wendy Plant has been with Oikocredit for over 30 years, making her Oikocredit’s longest standing employee. Initially joining as an administrative staffer after moving to the Netherlands from her ... full storyOikocredit’s first partner in Latin America
27 May | 2015 In Ecuador over 20% of the population live below the national poverty line*. Among the country’s rural population this proportion rises to over 50%**. Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio ... full storyLetter from our managing director
24 March | 2015 Dear valued stakeholders, With 2015 well under way, it’s a good time to look back on our achievements in the year that’s passed, as well as look ahead to what this year will bring. At Oikocredit, ... full storyOikocredit’s first ever loan in India
17 March | 2015 In India, around 300 million of its 1.2 billion inhabitants live below the $1.25 a day poverty line. When Oikocredit began operations 40 years ago, the number was almost the same, with around 320 ... full storyCombatting coffee leaf rust in Latin America
11 December | 2014 Part of Oikocredit’s triple bottom line is supporting partner organizations that not only provide social and financial impacts, but environmental ones as well. One partner that ticks all three ... full storyLetter from our managing director
20 March | 2014 Dear valued stakeholders, With 2014 well under way, it’s a good time to look back on our achievements in the year that’s passed. Last year was my first full year with Oikocredit and it was a ... full storyDarjeeling’s environmental estates
09 October | 2013 Oikocredit has been working in India since 1978, investing in equity and providing loans to numerous social enterprises throughout the country. Its most recent equity investment is in Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Private Ltd., known by its principal estate, Ambootia. The family owned company, led by Sanjay Bansal, is the second largest tea producer in the Darjeeling region and the largest producer of biodynamic Demeter certified tea in the world. It is renowned for its high social and environmental impacts. full storyMarketing Senegal’s mangoes
09 October | 2013 As part of Oikocredit’s strategic focus on agriculture, Oikocredit invests in several agricultural businesses in Africa, including Senegalese mango processing company, Les Saveurs du Sud SA. Although 75% of Senegal’s population works in the agricultural sector, much of the country’s rural areas remain underserviced in terms of electricity, drinkable water, agricultural equipment and irrigation. full storyA truly Divine partnership
09 October | 2013 Oikocredit partner, Divine Chocolate, is a company “owned by cocoa farmers, made for chocolate lovers™”. The chocolate company was started by the cocoa producing cooperative, Kuapa Kokoo, and became a partner of Oikocredit in 2006. Today, Divine Chocolate is the only Fairtrade chocolate company which is 45% owned by cocoa farmers. full storyKuapa Kokoo launches radio programme
26 March | 2013 How do you communicate to 65,000 members, some of whom live deep in the rainforest and can’t read or write? This has been a major challenge over recent years for Kuapa Kokoo, a fair trade partner of Oikocredit in Ghana. full storySocial impacts in Senegal
26 March | 2013 Evaluating social returns can be, at times, less straightforward than assessing financial returns. For Oikocredit, seeing the social benefits of its partners’ work remains a top priority. full storyKeeping a sharp eye on social performance
26 March | 2013 For Oikocredit, social returns are as important as financial returns. To assist our partners and the wider microfinance community in maintaining social practices, Oikocredit has a social performance officer in every region. full storyMentoring microfinance
22 March | 2013 In 2011, Oikocredit developed a social performance mentoring programme to assist microfinance institutions embed social practices into daily operations. How has the mentoring programme fared and what were some outcomes? full story