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Summary:

This paper examines previous attempts in Nepal to develop a cascade-training model, outlines the Nepal Australia Community Resource Management Project (NACRMP) model and briefly presents a summary of its strengths and weaknesses.
The NACRMP Cascade Training Model is a multilevel process with a primary aim of improving the quality and sustainability of training delivered by district-based institutions (government and non-government). The model also attempts to minimise the effects of transfers of trained trainers, by targeting locally based institutions and is consequently reliant on a networking approach to training. The model has three major activities, which are integrally linked with each other:

•	A Trainer of Trainers (ToT) course is based on an innovative experiential learning approach that focuses its efforts on highly participative classroom exercises and regular field verification activities. The course curriculum is centred on “everyday training practice” and covers analysing, designing, developing, conducting and evaluating the components of training. The ToT course also encourages the institutionalisation of the training planning process by focussing its attention on the design of new training interventions; upgrading existing training programs; and continuous need identification, training program planning and training curriculum development. The ToT course is conducted over a period of eighteen months involving eight experiential training modules interspersed with extensive field activities lasting 10-12 months and two “follow-up” workshops, conducted six to seven months later. During the modular course each participant is required to develop a training manual specific to their own discipline and is expected to field test the training manual and also plan and conduct their own ToT course. The two “follow-up” workshops focus not only on the implementation of the cascade learning model, but also on sharing experiences with planning and conducting their own ToT courses, other training courses and trainer and training manual preparation.
•	A networking approach to training within each district is encouraged and reinforced throughout the ToT course. ToT participants are deliberately selected from a wide range of local institutions. Consequently, from the onset of the course, they are exposed to many differing roles and diverse experiences and during the ToT course they are encouraged to build trust, understanding and consensus amongst themselves. These skills are complimented with additional team building exercises during and after the ToT course in order to encourage the establishment of an informal and hopefully a formal networking process.
•	The institutionalisation of a comprehensive training planning process within and between the various districts-based institutions. The preparation of comprehensive training proposals by local institutions (detailing the curricula, lesson plans, training materials and evaluation tools, feedback activities, and budgets) not only encourages a quality-based approach to training but also helps to institutionalise training within the institution’s planning process. The establishment of District Training Review Teams (DTRTs), composed of government and non-government institutions involved with community resource management activities, not only helps co-ordinate district training efforts and maximise limited training resources, but also supports a quality-based approach to training.

Three ToT courses were completed during 1998, 1999 and 2000 and a total of 164 participants enrolled and 114 (57 male, 57 female) graduated. The participants, through an intensive analysis of community problems and needs identified 32 training topics, which were used by the course organisers to illustrate the different phases of the training cycle. Many of these training topics were consolidated into seven multidisciplinary training programs, which were “field-tested” by the ToT graduates. The follow-up courses allowed the graduates to discuss the lessons learnt, to analyse the problems and issues that they encountered and to finalise the training curricula and manuals that they had field-tested. The last two ToT courses and follow-up workshops were planned and conducted by a select group of ToT graduates.

There were intensive post-workshop discussions and follow-up field visits by the organisers and modifications to the curricula design were very much based on participants’ experiences in the field and their feedback. Participant, observer and trainer evaluations of the ToT course were positive and modifications to the course have been cosmetic rather than structural. The results of the ToT course impact assessment were encouraging and show a marked improvement in the participants’ attitude to “experiential and participatory learning approaches”. An examination of the graduates’ levels of skill/knowledge retention and application were also extremely favorable.

The ToT course graduates established a network called the “National Training Resource Mobilisation Centre” (NTRMC) with a primary aim of co-ordinating the efforts and maintaining the professional standards of trainers in the two project districts. The NTRMC not only provides high quality locally based trainers, but also establishes a permanent and accessible training resource within the district. The NTRMC having only been established for 10 months has been instrumental in planning, organising and conducting many of the training programs funded by the project, including the ToT 2000 course.

The NTRMC provided facilitators to plan and conduct the last two ToT courses and provided support and assistance during the course. This institution is also in the process of launching a nation-wide ToT course for a wide range of institutions (Government and Donor agencies) and has been contracted by other rural development Projects to plan and conduct training activities.

The DTRTs have also witnessed a dramatic improvement in the quality of training proposals that have been presented for project funding. The role of the DTRT has also been expanded to include the review, analysis and selection of training proposals submitted by Government and Non-Government Organisations within the district and to provide advice to the various training institutions on quality training and provide feedback during the monitoring of the training programs.

The model’s achievements are impressive and appropriate, not only to Nepal, but to any country that has limited resources to invest in developing a sustainable training planning process and in establishing a qualified and dedicated trainer workforce. :