Progressio

Who we are

Progressio is a UK-based charity working internationally to enable people in developing countries to challenge and change the situations that keep them poor. We currently work in nine countries and have been working for over 75 years, with a long history of working in fragile, post-conflict and authoritarian states.

We develop long-term partnerships with local organisations and community groups in the global South, providing practical support through around development workers (DWs), mostly from the global South, who share skills, know-how and training. We also send committed young adults from the UK to engage in community development work for 12 weeks - this programme is called Progressio International Citizen Service (ICS). Both DWs and Progressio ICS placements contribute towards improving the lives of thousands of people in poor communities.

Because poverty is about unequal power relations and a lack of human rights, we work with a wide range of people who are poor and marginalised to change the structures that keep them in poverty. We support them in their calls for policy change. With our supporters, we stand alongside them in demanding that decision-makers around the world sit up and listen to them.

Inspired by our Catholic roots, we believe that experiencing ‘life in all its fullness’ includes freedom and control over one’s life and future. It means challenging inequalities and power imbalances. We see every person as sacred, having inherent dignity, so we stand in solidarity with poor and marginalised people in achieving their rights. We call this people powered development.