11 Program Monitoring The Rural Telecommunications Program is more than the implementation of physical infrastructure projects, as it also includes processes and activities that will help with designing the new environment and guiding its transformation. A monitoring function shall be implemented to monitor the regulatory agency and operators so as to measure the effectiveness of the policy and assess if government goals and objectives are being met. 11.1 Monitoring Dashboard A monitoring capability shall be put in place to appraise the effectiveness of the rural program. A “Program Management Dashboard” shall be created as the main monitoring tool to be used by the government, regulator, operators and other key stakeholders. The Implementing Agency shall be responsible for managing and monitoring the dashboard. The dashboard shall be linked to and provide updates to the National Vision indicators as required. The dashboard shall be used to highlight problem areas in the critical indicators of service delivery, quality of service, funding status, new requirements, and risk management. The monitoring shall include items such as: 11.2 i) Basic utilization and take up statistics ii) Qualitative assessments of the impacts, such as faster response to either education or health service delivery that might be attributed to the installation and utilization of the telecommunications infrastructure and services, iii) Some measurement criteria for monitoring the effectiveness of BTA, and iv) Additional reports and measurements to address the effectiveness of the operators in increasing their business and reducing the subsidy requirement. Key Stakeholder Participation Participation, cooperation and information sharing amongst the key stakeholders in the rural telecommunications program shall be promoted as part of the program monitoring. More specifically, attention must be paid to the ongoing interaction and updates related to: Rural Telecommunications Strategy 26 October 2006 27