Centre for Policy and Planning

DHAN Foundation, as a member of many policy-making bodies on microfinance and water conservation, strongly advocates pro-poor policies.

Centre for Policy and Planning (CPP), thus promoted, works with the programmes for advocating pro–poor policies in the fields of microfinance, water, rainfed farming, Panchayat Raj institutions and disaster mitigation. It helps the programmes in undertaking studies and policy research, organising policy seminars, publishing policy briefs and policy notes on specific issues related to these themes. Read More

Evolution of CPP

DHAN initiated a “Policy Cell” in 2003–2004, with a focus on facilitating liaison and linkage building with mainstream institutions. It also collaborated in joint studies with the ILO on Debt Swap, Water Security Projects with the State Planning Commission, and Inventory Studies on Micro Insurance.

As a member of many policy-making bodies on microfinance and water conservation, DHAN Foundation strongly advocates pro-poor policies. Thus promoted, the Centre for Policy and Planning (CPP) works with the programmes to advocate pro-poor policies in the fields of microfinance, water, rainfed farming, Panchayat Raj institutions, and disaster mitigation. It helps the programmes undertake studies and policy research, organise policy seminars, and publish policy briefs and policy notes on specific issues related to these themes.

The Centre naturally expanded its operation by taking up studies for other NGOs and getting involved in post-tsunami relief activities during the years 2004–2005. In 2006, the institution felt the need to promote the Centre for Policy and Planning (CPP), and it was formally promoted as one of the integrating centres of DHAN. It supported the planning for the Programmes / Institutions of DHAN Collective and Policy Advocacy support to government and other voluntary organizations.

Over the years the CPP has grown significantly in conducting policy seminars, bringing out policy briefs on specific topics of community interest and bringing macro perspectives to the DHAN system. CPP works closely with DHAN Collective institutions in refining Programme policies and planning processes. So far CPP has brought out 16 Policy Briefs on various development themes such as water, development finance, agriculture, gender, community governance and financial inclusion areas.

One of the key activities of CPP is to enable the demand system, and people institutions to contribute local-level policies at Village Panchayats and the district level. To foster this process, CPP is coordinating district-level policy seminars by the regions of DHAN across places once a quarter. In the past year, nearly 100 such events were conducted in several districts.

This process enables Positioning people institutions at the local level as a development organization, Sharing our best/unique practices with our stakeholders for appreciation and collaboration, Making others follow and replicate our model of intervention, Influencing policy changes/programme remodification of the government system to suit community interest at the best and Empower community leadership and advance the leadership capabilities of our members.

CPP in the DHAN Collective Structure

The structure of the DHAN Foundation is circular wherein the community is positioned as core. It communicates the philosophy of ‘Building on the native wisdom’. The wisdom of community is consciously learnt and conceived in the form of themes, programmes and later graduated to thematic institutions to scale up the development technologies without compromising the heritage and cultural rhythm. The specialized institutions, the central office for integration and DHAN networks fall in the consecutive orbits of the community in such a way as to percolate the thematic investments towards the community horizon.

Keeping Community as a centre DHAN Collective built four major layers to serve the community.

The first layer is programmes, which are the direct field level thematic interventions with a well-defined people institution structure and systems.

The second layer is called as SPICE (Specialised people Institutions for Community Empowerment). These are serving as verticals on a particular service/component which are highly essential to community in advancing their quality of life. These SPICE institutions will work to community thru Programmes.

The third layer of integrating centres at Central office of DHAN will provide and coordinate resource support to Programmes, SPICE and people institutions mainly on four dimensions namely, human resources, financial resources, knowledge resources & Physical resources.

Centre for Policy and Planning: Centre for Policy & Planning is housed under the integrating knowledge resources of DHAN Collective. All the centres have a mandate of contributing to three streams namely, to the institution, to the community and to the sector. So, all centre’s activities are designed in a way that they are balanced in contributing to all the three streams.

The fourth layer of networking with development stakeholders both at national and international levels provides a platform as a sounding board to share grassroots experiences with a global perspective.

As the approach of DHAN Foundation is building sustainable people institutions around the identified theme and enabling the community to anchor the development process, the role of central-level integration and facilitation becomes very crucial. So, as part of the central office, the centres are serving as key integrating units in the DHAN collective system.

Objectives of CPP

To support in development and refinement of policies for Programmes and Subsidiary Institutions of DHAN Collective towards achieving DHAN’s vision.

To develop and refine statutory policies related to HR, Financial and Legal compliances for DHAN and its collective institutions.

To enable people institutions for the development and refinement of policies in line with DHAN’s framework.

To showcase and advocate community-level practices to the sector for incorporation of grassroots learning into sectoral policies.

Evolve and monitor the strategic plan of DHAN Collective institutions

Policy Eco-System in DHAN Collective

Our approach to Public Policy

DHAN’s policies are based on Gandhian principles and continue to evolve through five dimensions: ‘The Trusteeship Model’, ‘Economy of Permanence’, ‘Community Swaraj’, ‘Localizing SDGs’, and the ‘ESG Framework’.

These dimensions advocate for moral inquiry and ethical value judgment across social, economic, environmental, and governance aspects of society.

DHAN believes that policies grounded in the principles of decentralization, self-sustainability, equality, nonviolence, and truthfulness foster a just society and sustainable ecology."

DHAN Way of Mainstreaming Community policies

Policy and Planning is the key element in the institution-building process. It serves as a tool for culture building among young DHANites and facilitates desirable culture creation among the senior DHANites. It is also interwoven with all the programmes, SPICE, Centres, and people institutions in creating DHAN’s identity and shared understanding.

Collaborate with us

DHAN invites interested organisations, to jointly work on the policy and planning areas. We expect interns from reputed institutions to take up policy-related studies, academia, voluntary organizations to offer DMPs on Policy & Planning and Government agencies to develop pro-poor policies.

You may reach DHAN thru cpp@dhan.org to explore with us.

District Policy Workshop : Click Here

National Policy Workshop : Click Here