I am having to demonstrate progress (7)
I believe the answer is:
improve
'progress' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'i am having to demonstrate' is the wordplay.
'i am' becomes 'I'm' (contraction).
'having' says to put letters next to each other.
'to demonstrate' becomes 'prove' ('prove' can be a synonym of 'demonstrate').
'im'+'prove'='IMPROVE'
(Other definitions for improve that I've seen before include "Make better in quality" , "reform" , "Enhance" , "Get or make better" , "pick up" .)