Dhan Foundation's Climate Change Initiative (Part A): Choosing Among Multiple Good Options

DHAN is a non-government organisation with a difference. It is neither a philanthropic organisation nor a service organisation but a development organisation focused on grassroots development, aided by professional management. At the same time, its vision is to be only an enabling institution rather than a directing agency. Dedicated to the mission of poverty eradication through grassroots development action, DHAN had made a significant impact on the Indian scene in the years since its inception in 1997. By 2011, when the events in the case were taking place, it had touched the lives of over 920,000 households across 12 states in India. In its mission to combat poverty, DHAN initially employed two major thematic interventions, namely, community banking and water management. However, over a period of time, it forayed into several other domains such as healthcare, education and livelihood generation, in response to the dynamic requirements of its community of beneficiaries. The case, divided into two parts, focuses on the theme of climate change adaptation and, more specifically, the promotion of climate resilient corps (small millets) and the associated production, processing, marketing and value chain management challenges, which have significant lessons for both the development and corporate sectors, on how to prepare the economically disadvantaged communities to the inevitable impact on their lives of impending climate change.