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Indulge in a FAPECAFES fair trade coffee at our events across Europe
21 September | 2017 Located in the mountains of southern Ecuador, Oikocredit partner FAPECAFES is an organisation of five cooperatives seeking to improve the conditions of its farmer members by commercialising fair trade and organic coffee. full storyHow fair trade is helping smallholder coffee farmers succeed
15 September | 2017 Fair Trade USA is the leading fair trade certifying body in North America, operating globally alongside the European-based Fairtrade International. Colleen Anunu, Fair Trade USA’s Senior Manager of Supply Chain, reflects on some of fair trade’s achievements and challenges, with a focus on the coffee sector. She also explains how Fair Trade USA and Oikocredit are teaming up to reduce price risks for coffee farmers. full storyLaura Pool appointed as chief risk officer
13 September | 2017 Laura Pool will become Oikocredit’s chief risk officer on 18 December, heading the risk department and joining the managing board. full story
Oikocredit appoints Laura Pool as chief risk officer
13 September | 2017 Amersfoort, the Netherlands. Social investor Oikocredit today announced that Laura Pool is to become its chief risk officer with effect from 18 December. She will head Oikocredit’s risk department and join the managing board. full story
Oikocredit Argentina awards innovation in microfinance
31 August | 2017 Oikocredit is pleased to announce that Paola González from Programa Alumbra - Fundación Banco Macro is the winner of the Oikocredit Argentina Innovative Loan Officer award. The award was presented at the 11th annual summit on microfinance: The role of microfinance in financial inclusion held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 29 August. full storyCooperatives supporting fruit farmers in northern Patagonia
10 August | 2017 Herminio Antonio Urrutia is 61 years old and has been a member of the fruit-growers’ cooperative Primera Cooperativa Frutícola in Argentina’s northern Patagonia for over 20 years, or as he puts it: “Ever since I started my own business!” full storyMore coffee trees to fill another cup and support the smallholder farmer
26 July | 2017 Whether you’re in need of a boost or you’re just the average coffee lover, waking up to the smell of roasted beans is what often gets us through the day. Coffee is easy to enjoy, however, we often don’t realise what it takes to get this wake-up cup into our hands. full storyLeading Agricultural Lenders Deploy $682 Million to Support Small Businesses and Farmer Livelihoods Globally
19 July | 2017 Oikocredit and the 10 other members of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) today announced in their newly published State of the Sector report that they provided $682 million in loans to 765 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during 2016. 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 story40 million people, 84% being women, reached by organisations financed by Oikocredit
27 June | 2017 Today these results and more were released in Oikocredit’s Social and Environmental Performance Report for 2016. full story40 million people reached in 2016 by organisations financed by Oikocredit
27 June | 2017 Social impact investor Oikocredit’s latest Social and Environmental Performance Report shows 84 per cent of those reached were women full story
Oikocredit annual general meeting elects supervisory board members, approves dividend
15 June | 2017 This week over 120 members and staff of Oikocredit International gathered for a week of meetings in Accra, Ghana, including the annual general meeting (AGM) and a conference with speakers from across Ghana’s financial inclusion sector. full storyInternational cooperative Oikocredit holds development finance meetings in Accra
15 June | 2017 Oikocredit brought 150 people from 33 countries to Ghana for its annual general meeting and financial inclusion conference full story
Agriculture Report 2016 - Announcement
08 June | 2017 Oikocredit's Agriculture Report for 2016 is now online. This report examines trends in the portfolio growth, quality and composition over the past four years. full storyOikocredit delivers fresh insights into rural-urban poverty
31 May | 2017 Supporting financial inclusion in low and lower income countries by investing in microfinance institutions (MFIs) is central to Oikocredit’s mission. However, as Thelma Brenes Muñoz of Oikocredit’s social performance team says: “We also want to know more about how this work affects the lives of the people receiving loans.” full storyWorld Fair Trade Day: Celebrating Oikocredit’s partners across the globe
12 May | 2017 Fair trade is defined as ‘a movement whose goal is to help producers in developing countries to get a fair price for their products so as to reduce poverty, provide for the ethical treatment of workers and farmers, and promote environmentally sustainable practices.’ 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 storyInvesting in healthcare and education
07 April | 2017 Besides Oikocredit’s focus areas of inclusive finance, agriculture, renewable energy and Africa, we finance partners that provide health and educational services in low-income communities, for example in Argentina. full storyOikocredit Annual Report 2016: Diversifying for our Future
04 April | 2017 Oikocredit's Annual Report for 2016 is now online. The Annual Report provides an update on our operations and performance, including recent developments in our focus areas of inclusive finance, agriculture, renewable energy and Africa. 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 storyOikocredit and IDB help Latin American farmers combat volatile coffee prices
29 March | 2017 Oikocredit has teamed with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Fair Trade USA, Keurig Green Mountain and Catholic Relief Services for a unique three-year capacity building project to support smallholder coffee farmers facing volatile markets. full storyOikocredit surpasses € 1 billion development financing milestone in 2016
22 March | 2017 Amersfoort, the Netherlands – Today social investor and worldwide cooperative Oikocredit published its financial results for 2016, revealing a development financing portfolio of €1,047.2 million, up 16% on 2015. full story
Oikocredit exceeds € 1 billion in financing to partner organizations
22 March | 2017 Today Oikocredit announced its annual results at a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany. The cooperative achieved another successful year in financing its partner organizations to improve the quality of life of people in low-income countries. full storyFrom good intentions to a sustainable future
01 March | 2017 Oikocredit is not simply committed to delivering microfinance to clients in developing regions, it is also dedicated to ensuring that its clients have a sustainable future. Our capacity building programme focused on client outcomes is key to achieving this aim. full storyTransforming tea estates and impacting lives in northern India [part 2]
21 February | 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 storyTransforming tea estates and impacting lives in northern India [part 1]
21 February | 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 storyThos Gieskes appointed as managing director of Oikocredit
07 February | 2017 Amersfoort – the Netherlands. Social investor Oikocredit today announced that it will welcome Thos Gieskes as its new managing director as of April 2017. full story
Oikocredit appoints new managing director
07 February | 2017 Thos Gieskes will be welcomed as managing director of Oikocredit on 3 April 2017. full storyMajor agricultural lenders affirm shared environmental and social principles
06 February | 2017 Nairobi, Kenya — Oikocredit and eight other Members of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) announced at their regional meeting that they have formally adopted a set of jointly developed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. full story
Video featuring solar power solutions in India
02 February | 2017 Punam Energy Private Limited (PEPL), based in Kolkata, is the commercial offshoot of the NGO SwitchON. All of its products are marketed under the brand name ONergy. The NGO has been instrumental ... full storyOikocredit in Africa: Decisions are a matter of good relationships
31 January | 2017 As the crow flies, it is 4,599 kilometres between the offices of Judy Ngarachu in Nairobi, Kenya, and Yves Komaclo in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The two regional directors represent Oikocredit on the east-west axis of the continent, with five Oikocredit offices in West Africa and four in East Africa. We spoke with them about what unifies and differentiates their work in Oikocredit’s priority region. full storySupporting smallholder farmers during Ukraine’s turbulent times
12 January | 2017 Getting access to loans has been a challenge for smallholder farmers in Ukraine for several decades. Since the agrarian reforms following the country’s independence from Russia in 1991, mainstream investors have favoured large-scale agricultural production. full story
The 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 storyOikocredit boosts stake in Bolivia’s Banco Fie
24 November | 2016 The capital increase more than doubles the social investor’s equity stake in this leading Latin American microfinance institution. full story
Oikocredit increases equity stake in Bolivian MFI
24 November | 2016 Oikocredit has more than doubled its investment in Banco Fie, a leading microfinance bank with a strong commitment to financial inclusion in Bolivia. Banco Fie has been a partner of Oikocredit’s ... full storyOikocredit, Triodos Investment Management and Fidosa invest in Guatemalan hydropower
23 November | 2016 Social investor Oikocredit, impact investor Triodos Investment Management and Guatemalan bank Grupo Financiero de Occidente (Fidosa) have teamed up to provide financing worth USD 8.20 million for two run-of-the-river hydroelectric plants in the San Marcos department of Guatemala. full storyOikocredit and USAID launch partnership to advance agriculture in West Africa
17 November | 2016 Oikocredit today announced that it is teaming up with USAID to finance West Africa’s agricultural sector. Oikocredit will provide loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives and associations in agricultural value chains, backed up by a USAID guarantee facility. full story