Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status update — March 14, 2017

Kiva and CONFRAS have agreed to end their partnership after nearly 4 years and more than $31,000 in loans raised. CONFRAS has repaid its outstanding balance to Kiva in full, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. We thank CONFRAS for the years of collaboration and wish them success in their future endeavors.

Inactive Status:

Kiva has moved this Lending Partner to inactive status. This means CONFRAS is no longer fundraising loans on Kiva, though Kiva fully expects the partner to continue to send repayments owed to Kiva lenders for as long as the partner has an outstanding balance. The reasons a partner might become inactive include: taking time to develop a new type of loan, turnover on the partner’s management team, a shift in overall strategy or changes in funding sources. If and when this partner requests to fundraise again on Kiva, Kiva will first conduct any additional monitoring and due diligence tasks we believe necessary.

Partner Description:

CONFRAS is a confederation for agrarian reform in El Salvador founded in the 1980s. It was born out of the need to further land reform efforts following the Salvadoran civil war which began in 1979.

The organization focuses on five main areas, including a) defending agricultural reform through land access, agrarian rights and technical assistance, b) promoting sustainable agricultural development based on a model of food sovereignty and gender equality, c) providing services to affiliates focused on social development and productive economics such as agricultural loans, education, commercialization, etc. d) influencing public policy to improve agricultural and rural development, and e) strengthening CONFRAS’s member organizations.

CONFRAS represents 107 cooperatives with a total membership of approximately 4,000 farmers. Those cooperatives in turn are organized into seven federations. The represented cooperatives are not savings and loan cooperatives; rather, they work together to reclaim land that was previously re-allocated to the landed elite and take advantage of resources that the current government has opened up to producers through technical assistance, financing and more.



CONFRAS offers its member cooperatives access to financing through a program called PROCAMPO (Agricultural Loan Program for Organization, Women and Production). In 2012, 300 loan recipients received training in personal finances, understanding microcredit and budgeting in addition to agricultural technical assistance. Kiva lenders’ funds are used to help CONFRAS expand its loan portfolio within the PROCAMPO program and impact more Salvadoran farmers who are otherwise excluded from most MFIs.

A unique lending approach

CONFRAS works toward its five main goals through two distinct mechanisms. First, it executes specific projects with the help of international organizations. Second, it acts as a lobbyist and an advisor to politicians, in order to influence policies that will benefit its members.

CONFRAS loan portfolio is administered by a cooperative called ACAF de R.L. (Savings and Loan Cooperative  “La Fuente”). La Fuente is independent of CONFRAS and disburses loans to non-CONFRAS members, although 80% of the loan portfolio consists of PROCAMPO funds. La Fuente’s only office is in San Salvador and it offers savings, remittances and bill pay services. The cooperative disburses business, consumption and agricultural loans.