The Progreso Fund is expanding its team! We are seeking a skilled and motivated Credit Analyst (32–40 hrs/week) to support our social lending initiatives across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This is an exciting opportunity to combine financial expertise with a commitment to sustainable development and rural livelihoods.
Location: Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua, or the Netherlands (flexible arrangements possible). Application deadline: 17 October 2025.
About the Progreso Fund
The Progreso Fund facilitates first-time loans for coffee and cocoa producer organizations, often below the thresholds of traditional social lenders. By providing access to trade finance and microcredits, we help strengthen producer organizations and enable smallholder farmers to grow into sustainable, professional businesses. Our lending activities are closely connected to Progreso Foundation’s technical assistance programs, allowing us to combine financial access with long-term capacity development.
The Role of Credit Analyst
As a Credit Analyst, you will:
Conduct financial and credit risk assessments of potential beneficiaries.
Monitor portfolio performance and support mitigation strategies.
Collaborate with regional teams to identify new opportunities and strengthen partnerships.
Contribute to the development of credit policies and training for program staff.
This position offers international exposure, the chance to work across cultures and regions, and the opportunity to make a tangible impact in coffee and cocoa supply chains.
Who We Are Looking For
We are looking for a candidate with:
A degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field.
3–5 years of experience in credit analysis, financial analysis, or risk assessment.
A strong interest in agricultural or development finance.
Excellent cross-cultural communication skills and fluency in English (Spanish strongly preferred).
What We Offer
A meaningful role in making the coffee and cocoa sectors more sustainable.
Flexible working arrangements and international collaboration.
An entrepreneurial and impact-focused working environment.
How to Apply
Interested? Submit your CV and cover letter to admin@progreso.nl.
This October, coffee buyers from around the world have the chance to participate in an online auction featuring exceptional coffees from Peru and Colombia from cooperatives supported by the Progreso Foundation. On October 28 and 29, 2025, registered participants can bid on lots curated by 3 producer organizations:
Rutas del Inca, a Peruvian cooperative with 275 members since 2013 (Fairtrade & Organic), offers two standout lots: Inka Essence and Chasqui Reserva. Inka Essence reflects the enduring Inca legacy—ancestral wisdom, respect for nature, and a deep connection to the land—grown at high altitudes in Cajamarca. Chasqui Reserva honors the chasquis, the messengers of the Inca Empire, combining exclusivity with generations of collective knowledge. Together, they showcase both quality and living heritage.
Aromas del Valle, with 596 members since 2015 (Fairtrade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance), is dedicated to closing gender gaps and empowering women in specialty coffee. Their lot, Mestiza, raises awareness of women’s work in the sector, while the microlot from Norbil Pérez Tello of Finca La Chirimoya features innovative Geisha coffees shaped by Cajamarca’s unique microclimates. These lots highlight both inclusivity and excellence.
Global Cafés, a Colombian cooperative with 256 members since 2012 (Fairtrade, Organic, UTZ, SPP), presents Cima Ancestral and Conexión. Cima Ancestral offers bright acidity, notes of panela, lemon, and honey, and a lively body. Conexión features chocolate and orange notes, medium body, citric acidity, and light nutty aftertaste. These coffees reflect the cooperative’s commitment to quality, traceability, and the flavors of Colombian highlands.
Organized by Progreso and Beyco, with the support of V-Auction, the auction runs for two days and offers buyers the opportunity to bid directly on lots from producers. The auction offers a unique way for producers to showcase their coffees to a global audience and for buyers to discover new sourcing opportunities. It’s a space to explore a variety of coffee profiles, connect with previously unknown producer organizations, and potentially establish long-term partnerships.
Beyond the cups themselves, the event highlights the people and communities behind the coffees. By bringing buyers and producers together in one platform, the auction opens doors to new connections and collaborations, helping participants navigate the global coffee market in fresh ways.
The auction will take place online and is open to all interested buyers. Registration is now available through the auction platform.
This month marked an important milestone for the coffee sector and for Beyco. Busongora Coffee in Uganda and Val & Tin Coffee Gardens in Switzerland have signed a purchase contract on our platform. At first glance, it may appear to be just another trade agreement, but in reality, it is so much more!
The contract demonstrates how farmer organizations and buyers can already meet the requirements of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Thanks to the Beyco farmer platform, the agreement includes geo-data traceability down to the level of individual plots and households, ensuring that the coffee can be traced back to its exact origin. At the same time, financial and value chain data were exported directly from the platform, giving all actors insight into the numbers behind the trade. Even the financing conditions were made visible, clearly showing who funded the contract and under what terms.
By bringing all of this together in a single document, Busongora and Val & Tin have gone beyond compliance. They have shown that traceability and transparency do not have to be obstacles, but can instead be tools to strengthen trust and inclusion across the value chain. This achievement is not only a step toward EUDR readiness, but also a glimpse into the kind of fairer, more sustainable coffee trade that digital platforms like Beyco make possible.
Brian Masereka, Beyco Implementation Officer Uganda: “Beyco means Beyond coffee in the context of the coffee industry, By signing this contract on beyco and visibly showing the various aspects of the value chain, the buyer is giving the consumers more than just coffee, he is allowing them the opportunity to interact with origin stories and see various aspects of the value chain. I suppose that if you know the true story of your coffee, it can never taste the same because you see it just beyond the coffee in the cup.”
Visualizing coffee contracts on Beyco
Behind every signed contract on the Beyco Platform lies a story. The recent purchase agreement between Busongora Coffee in Uganda and Val & Tin Coffee Gardens in Switzerland is no exception, and this time, the story is made visible in a new way.
On Beyco, the contract is more than a set of signatures. It captures the trust built between farmers and buyers, while also making the often-invisible parts of a trade relationship clear for everyone to see. For example, the financing behind the contract is displayed transparently, showing how access to trade finance made the deal possible. Financial and value chain data, exported from the farmer platform, add another layer of openness that builds confidence among all parties. And thanks to geo-data collected at the plot and household level, the origin of the coffee can be traced with unprecedented precision.
What makes this so significant is not only the technology itself, but the signal it sends: contracts on Beyco can become living documents that tell the full story of a trade, from the household level in Uganda to a roasting company in Switzerland. This visualization of trust, data, and traceability sets a benchmark for the sector, showing how digital platforms can reshape the way coffee is traded and valued.
Ayub Asingataba, Program Manager – East Africa: “Beyco is not just a platform; it is a bridge that connects farmers to the global market. Through robust data management, full traceability, and EUDR compliance, it gives cooperatives the credibility buyers demand while securing fairer opportunities for farmers. With Beyco, origin stories gain visibility, trust is strengthened, and farmers’ coffee earns its rightful place on the world stage.”
We are delighted to welcome An Ha, who started on August 18th as our new Managing Director. To get to know her better, she shares a bit about the path that brought her to Progreso, her vision for working with farmer cooperatives, and what excites her most about stepping into this role.
When An looks back at the path that led her to Progreso, she describes it as a journey that has always circled back to the same place: close to the farmer. After studying development economics, her career began at Rabo Foundation, continued at Rabobank and later took her to Solidaridad. While these roles gave her valuable insights into development finance and sustainability, she felt a strong pull to work more directly with farmers and their cooperatives.
Through Iris van der Velden, a member of Progreso’s Supervisory Board, An was introduced to the role of Managing Director. The moment she learned about the position, it felt like a natural fit. Stepping into this role, she explains, felt like a welcome home, being closer to farmer cooperatives than ever before, and at the very heart of the challenges and opportunities they face.
For An, supporting farmer cooperatives is both a professional challenge and a source of deep fulfillment. Cooperatives are complex organizations; their success depends on many intertwined factors. Yet it is precisely this complexity that motivates her. The opportunity to contribute to their growth and resilience in a way that has a direct impact on farmers’ lives is what excites her most about Progreso.
She brings with her a unique mix of experiences: a background in banking and technical assistance, with financing gradually becoming an important part of her professional toolkit. She sees her role as one of bridging Progreso’s technical assistance programs with the Progreso Fund, helping cooperatives move more smoothly along the path toward independence. Finance, she admits, is a challenging part of the equation, but it is also where she sees great potential.
Making finance accessible and understandable is something An values deeply. She knows how transformative it can be for a cooperative to truly grasp its own financial health and to build the capacity to grow stronger on that foundation. This, she says, is one of Progreso’s distinctive strengths: the emphasis on both the quality of cooperatives’ financial management and the people behind it. It is something she wants to highlight more in the future.
Outside of her professional journey, An recently started her own garden. Only now, with her hands in the soil, has she come to fully appreciate the time, patience, and dedication farming requires. It has given her a renewed respect for the farmers at the center of Progreso’s mission and makes her even more committed to supporting their cooperatives as the new Managing Director.
Of course, we couldn’t let this moment pass without sitting down with Natan YAO himself—after all, he’s not new to Progreso, but he is stepping into a new and exciting role.
With nearly 15 years of experience in the cocoa sector, Natan’s journey began as an agronomist with a local firm, where he was in charge of some of the first UTZ and Rainforest Alliance certification assessments. His growing interest in cooperative development led him to join the HRNS Foundation (Hanns Neumann Stiftung, Germany), where he worked as a capacity-building manager for cocoa producer organizations. There, he focused on identifying training needs, designing tailored modules, and delivering capacity-building programs for cooperatives.
In 2018, Natan’s path first crossed with Progreso, when he began supporting us in several activities while still with HRNS. Between 2018 and 2021, he served as Progreso’s main point of contact in Côte d’Ivoire. His official journey with Progreso began in 2021, when he was recruited as Project Manager and Country Representative. In this role, he oversaw significant growth: the number of cooperatives under permanent supervision tripled from 2 to 6, and 3 additional cooperatives gained access to marketing funds.
In 2025, following the spin-off of Pool Africa, Natan took on his new role as Program Manager for West Africa. His ambition is clear: to grow Progreso’s presence in the African sub-region and increase the number of partner cooperatives.
“Working for Progreso allows me to thrive in a sector I’m passionate about,” Natan shared during our conversation. “What motivates me most is the chance to work closely with farmers from diverse backgrounds and to contribute meaningfully to improving their conditions, with the freedom and trust to act.”
With his experience, dedication, and vision, Natan is well-positioned to lead Progreso’s efforts in West Africa—both in strengthening our work in Côte d’Ivoire and expanding our impact across the region.
We are pleased to welcome Ayub as Progreso’s new Program Manager for East Africa. Ayub is a development professional with over 10 years of experience in agriculture, cooperative development, and access to finance. With a background in accounting and a strong commitment to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, he has focused his career on designing and managing programs that strengthen rural enterprises, promote inclusive market systems, and support sustainable development, especially in the coffee and cocoa sectors.
Throughout his career, Ayub has led donor-funded initiatives, built strategic partnerships, and supported cooperatives to become more resilient, market-ready, and financially sustainable. He is driven by collaboration, innovation, and hands-on engagement with communities to achieve lasting impact.
What attracted Ayub to Progreso is its clear commitment to sustainable and inclusive agricultural development, practical support to cooperatives, and innovative use of digital tools like Beyco. Having worked with Progreso on regional programs in the past, he was inspired by the organization’s farmer-centered approach and grassroots partnerships. Joining the team is a natural next step in advancing his passion for transforming rural livelihoods.
In his new role, Ayub looks forward to working alongside an inspiring team to build resilient, inclusive value chains across East Africa. He is eager to engage with producer organizations on the ground, understand their challenges, and co-create solutions that strengthen governance, increase access to markets and finance, and enhance climate adaptation capacities. He aims to bring strategic leadership, regional insight, and a collaborative spirit to support the growth of Progreso’s programs and help scale digital tools like Beyco to increase transparency and traceability.
Outside of work, Ayub enjoys travel, spending time in nature, and listening to community stories, especially from farmers, whose resilience continues to inspire him. He is also a smallholder dairy farmer, passionate about photography, volleyball, and cycling. Committed to lifelong learning, Ayub is particularly interested in dairy farm productivity, regenerative agriculture, and climate adaptation strategies.
Please join us in warmly welcoming Ayub to Progreso and wishing him every success in his new role!
With great sadness, Progreso says goodbye to Angel Mario: a warm personality, a natural connector, and a dear colleague and friend.
Angel Mario was involved from the early days of Stichting Green Development, the predecessor of Stichting Progreso, where he grew into an indispensable force within the network. As our Supervisory Board member Huub Keulen recalls: “He was happy with his job, happy with the team and happy with Amsterdam, where he had found his place. His positivity and thoughtfulness left a lasting impression on everyone.”
Supervisory Board member Minke van Rees remembers how they grew together in their work: “We grew together in our work. Both of us eventually even in a director’s position. This wasn’t even a specific goal or ambition for either of us, as long as we could have impact.” And impact, he certainly had. Huub adds: “Angel Mario gave a lot, but also got a lot done in return, and in doing so he left an essential mark on the work and impact of Progreso.”
As a natural relationship builder, Angel Mario effortlessly connected with others. Minke recalls how he navigated with ease “between African cooperatives, traders, financiers or government institutions.” His dedication, his warm approach, and his ability to build bridges will always be remembered.
On a personal level too, many of us felt deeply connected to him. As Minke shares: “I am so grateful that he got to experience fatherhood. And that his children got to experience him as a father, only for far, far too short a time.”
With Angel Mario, we lose more than a colleague. As Huub puts it: “As if a part of ourselves has disappeared.”
We cherish the memories and wish his family, friends, and loved ones much strength. Angel Mario, you will always be in our hearts.
It’s not easy to say goodbye to someone who’s made such a lasting impact in a short time. After these past few years of her time at Progreso, we’ve said farewell to our Managing Director, Anneke Goede. And while her departure leaves us a little nostalgic, we mostly feel proud and grateful for her leadership, her care, and everything we’ve built together during her time at Progreso.
In 2024, we faced a year of both challenge and opportunity—with record-high coffee and cocoa prices, shifting markets, and growing regulatory demands like the EU deforestation law. Yet through it all, I’m proud of how Progreso has continued to stand by producer organizations, adapting and growing stronger. Together with our dedicated teams across seven countries, we expanded our reach, built new partnerships, and strengthened tools like Beyco to support more traceable and resilient supply chains. As we look to 2025, I remain confident in our shared mission: unlocking market access and building a fairer future for smallholder farmers. – Anneke Goede
In 2024, Progreso made important progress in diversifying its funding sources and strengthening internal operations to support long-term sustainability. With the support of our new Partnerships Manager, Daan Mulder, we explored new opportunities and secured commitments from multiple donors. A strong example is our expanded work in Côte d’Ivoire—what started with Rabo Foundation has grown into a multi-donor initiative with SEM Foundation and Oikocredit, supporting six cooperatives.Internally, we improved consistency in communication and proposal development, and fully integrated our overhead revenue system introduced in 2023. Our active presence at events such as Chocoa, SCA, and Salon du Chocolat helped connect us with buyers and traders, strengthening the Beyco for Cocoa platform. Collaborations with GIZ and other NGOs also took shape.We renewed key partnerships, including Rabo Foundation’s support across five countries, and deepened our work with Oikocredit through the SSNUP initiative. Looking ahead to 2025, we aim to secure at least two donors per country and expand our Progreso Fund, combining technical assistance with trade finance. We’ll also focus on reinforcing the link between Progreso and Beyco. With 2024 laying a strong foundation, we’re ready to grow our impact in 2025.
Beyco in 2024
In 2024, Beyco accelerated its impact in digital cocoa trade, launching the Beyco Cocoa platform and expanding from dried beans to liquor and butter. Successful rollouts in Côte d’Ivoire, Peru, and Colombia demonstrated strong cooperative interest in Beyco’s decentralized model, which ensures full data ownership and transparency.
Beyco adapted its systems to meet EU deforestation-free supply chain (EUDR) requirements, enabling cooperatives—like one in Uganda—to benefit financially from compliance. The shift to working with local service providers boosted global reach, with promising collaborations in Kenya and Indonesia. Looking ahead, Progreso’s 2025–2030 strategy focuses on enhancing Beyco’s affordability, EUDR capabilities, and data literacy training to empower producer organizations.
Latin America in 2024
In 2024, Progreso reinforced the resilience of cooperatives in Peru, Colombia, and Nicaragua through technical assistance, access to finance, and strengthened market linkages. With partners such as Rabo Foundation and Solidaridad, we enhanced financial management, supported adaptation to market and regulatory demands, and promoted traceability, especially under the EU Deforestation Regulation. Programs like Blueprint Café and the newly launched Blueprint Cacao have empowered cooperatives with agroforestry design training and flexible loan schemes. The Progreso Fund remained solid, expanding in Nicaragua while maturing in Peru and Colombia. Across all countries, digital tools like Beyco were central to improving data use, financial planning, and compliance.
Our 2025 priorities include scaling impact through improved governance, targeted financial instruments, and strategic partnerships with actors like IDH, ADA, and Swisscontact. By deepening our support and refining our tools, Progreso is enabling smallholder organizations to thrive in increasingly demanding and competitive markets.
Africa in 2024
In 2024, Progreso deepened its support to 21 coffee and cocoa cooperatives across Uganda, Rwanda, and Côte d’Ivoire through tailored technical assistance, capacity building, and access to finance. In Uganda, support focused on strengthening internal governance and aligning loans with tailored TA to enhance resilience.
In Rwanda, efforts targeted business planning and credit-readiness, while Côte d’Ivoire saw a new partnership with SEM Foundation to improve cooperative governance and climate-resilient farming. Across countries, Progreso worked closely with Rabo Foundation and other partners to support cooperatives with financing, digital onboarding through Beyco, and market access. Lessons learned emphasized the need to strengthen internal structures before scaling TA.
In 2025, Progreso will refine its onboarding criteria, deepen financial support, and continue aligning TA with market opportunities, including the first union-led cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire. The focus remains on building strong, self-reliant cooperatives able to secure financing, access markets, and drive sustainable, farmer-led development.
Indonesia in 2024
In 2024, Progreso Indonesia supported 14 coffee and cocoa partners across Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Flores, and Bali through financial training, operational guidance, and strategic networking. Six cooperatives accessed working capital loans via Rabo Foundation’s on-lending program, while Ontosoroh Coffee and Makmur Sejahtera transitioned to direct Rabo financing.
Ontosoroh expanded its sourcing and continued exports to This Side Up, and Makmur Sejahtera partnered with Sucafina to supply over 200 tons of Java Robusta. At Jacoweek, Beyco engaged producers on EUDR compliance through digital traceability and joined a panel on sustainability in the premium market. Partners Rejo Mulyo and Lodra Mandiri competed in the Cup of the Year, showcasing their quality coffees. In October, Progreso joined the SCAJ Expo in Tokyo, where partners presented coffees from across Indonesia and shared insights into our inclusive value chain approach, supported by a Rabo Foundation-funded project.
