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Summary:

At the start of the Nepal Australia Community Resource Management Project, a number of challenges were facing the Project regarding post formation support to Forest User Groups (FUGs). These challenges included:

•	The need to more fully test and realise the potential of FUGs as positive agents of change. For this to occur, the quality of FUGs, as institutions, needed to be improved through greater equity considerations, gender balance, self-help attitudes and improved organisational capacity. Participatory principles and processes tested in previous project phases had potential for wider application in improving FUG institutions.
•	The increasing number and gradual development of FUGs required increasing levels as well as diversifying areas of post formation support, fulfillment of which were beyond the potential and scope of the District Forest Office. At the same time, an increase, in recent years, in the number of local non-government organisations was witnessed and their potential as service providers to FUGs needed to be tested. The role of the Project was to change from one of implementation to one of facilitation.
•	With improved management and conservation, natural forest and developed plantations now had the potential to produce income to drive both participatory social processes and investment in community facilities.

These challenges needed to be addressed in innovative ways in order to move forward the process of sustainable FUG development. With this in mind, a five-stage model for the development of FUGs, as institutions leading integrated local development processes using their own resources, was conceptualised. The model forms the basis for the User Group Development Process (UGDP), a process by which FUGs prepare, implement and review community development plans in an on-going manner.

This paper presents the principles and operational assumptions underlying the UGDP, describes the institutional support system (consisting of local intermediaries supported by professional organisations), details the steps in the development planning process, and also presents key features of development plan implementation. Characteristics of the UGDP include:

•	Bottom-up planning through a focus on settlement and interest group based processes, gradually broadening the scope and consolidating sub-group plans at the FUG level. High community ownership is achieved through involvement of all sections of the community. Community members are fully responsible for the preparation and implementation of their plans.
•	Equity and gender considerations are an integral part of the process and plans are not complete unless women and disadvantaged groups have undergone planning processes and integrated them in the community plan. Their representation at each stage of the decision making process is crucial. Equity issues and how to overcome inequitable situations are continually raised by the intermediary organisation and discussed, during both planning and implementation of activities.
•	Evaluation of internal communication processes and search for alternatives to improve information flow. These include processes such as establishing settlement and gender representation on FUG committees, instituting information channels focusing on particular groups and a system of public auditing.
•	Sustainability is encouraged through a self-help approach to community planning: focus on utilisation of local resources (such as income generation from forests), incorporation of development plans in forest operational plans, and establishment and maintenance of functional linkages with (local) service providers. In order to regularly update plans, and to evaluate and improve performance, (participative) annual review and planning sessions are held.
•	The above, as well as an emphasis on specific organisational management skills (such as good account keeping, systematic documentation, undertaking monitoring) contribute to significant strengthening of FUGs and thereby empowerment.