Making it possible

The following organizations have supported the Progreso Network initiative from day one:

•    Solidaridad

•    TASTE (Developing Fair-Trade Markets)

•    PSO (Dutch association for development organizations)

•    UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme

•    Doen Foundation

•    Rabobank Foundation

Our team

For day-to-day coordination, a project team was appointed. Our team members introduce themselves below:

My name is Edith Kroese, and I am the overall project coordinator of Progreso Network. I have a specialization in organization development, and have been working with producer organizations in Latin America and Africa for almost ten years. Progreso Network offers me the opportunity to directly exchange with these organizations, which is of great value to me.

My name is Luis Ignacio Carmona and I am the communication officer of Progreso Network. I am working as a Graphic Communication Designer specialized in small farmer organizations over six years now. My challenge is to create meaningful conversations between the producer organizations and the global markets. I believe that Progreso Network can create an online platform to develop these connections.

My name is Alba Leticia Ochoa. I’m the ‘Latin-American consultant’ for Progreso Network. I am an Agricultural Engineer with a MBA and have been working with the coffee producers in Central America for almost 10 years. Progreso Network allows me the opportunity to share experiences of producer organizations and to know the solutions that other organizations have developed for common problems.

My name is Bernie Hewett and I am the “Africa consultant” for the Progresonetwork. This means that I provide the link between African producer organizations and the Progresonetwork office in the Netherlands. Currently my work includes organizing learning excursions and writing articles for the blog as well as organizing videos and consultant analyses of interesting and successful producer group initiatives. I live in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, am married to a Tanzanian called Mwanaima and we have one son called Neale.

My name is Jasmijn Besorak, an intern at Progreso Network and a master student at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. I am conducting a research about knowledge building and -sharing as an essential part of organizational development of producer organizations. This research is mainly based on the analysis of the 60 experiences that Progreso Network received from all the producer organisations! Furthermore I look foward to participate in all the learning activities.