Posted on July, 30 2013

Public Hearing and Public Auditing (PHPA) is a participatory process that aims to strengthen the transparency and accountability of institutions. The process is carried out by Forest User Groups with the assistance of local resource persons acting as facilitators. Through information sharing and question-answer style discussion, it allows for a mutual assessment of performance by user group members (the rights holders) and user group executive committee members (the duty bearers). While management processes and outcomes are assessed during the public hearing, the public audit reviews financial transactions, including the status of the group fund. Both processes are generally conducted annually. Process participants agree on a set of recommendations which are reviewed in the following public hearing and auditing.

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