further liberalisation of the telecommunications sector. The provision of rural telecommunications services shall be invited through a tendering process. The award of tender should be based on cost effective technology solutions. A new licence framework which is technology and service neutral is proposed to meet the requirement for cost effective and logical solutions in the rural areas. Citizen empowerment is highly desirable in the implementation of the rural program. The strategy has identified the need to fund the implementation as well as the operations and maintenance of the resulting infrastructure. The strategy is calling for the establishment of a Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF) which should be funded through public and private partnership. The RTDF, which will be managed by an independent agency, will use direct government subsidies, operators’ levies and some funds from BTA to provide the necessary funding for the rural telecommunications program in the short to medium term. The government subsidy will be used initially to fund the infrastructure build stage and the other resources will assist to provide an ongoing operations subsidy. Even though the operator levy is recommended, additional discussions between the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology (MCST), regulator and other stakeholders are required to finalize the necessary details such as the exact amount to be contributed by each operator It is expected that the longer term funding for the rural program will be informed by the Universal Service Policy. A monitoring capability must be put in place to appraise the effectiveness of the rural program. A “Program Management Dashboard” has been recommended as the main monitoring tool to be used and managed by an independent funding agency. The dashboard will be used to highlight problem areas in the critical indicators of service delivery, quality of service, funding status, new requirements, and risk management. The rural program monitoring also addresses the vital need to increase cooperation and information sharing between the key stakeholders such as government ministries, the regulator and operators in ensuring the success of the rural telecommunications program. Rural Telecommunications Strategy 26 October 2006 5