Data Protection Note: The ACCESS Consortium Nexus Tracker (NexT)

This data protection note is designed to complement the existing data protection policies and guidelines of the ACCESS Consortium partners and does not in any way affect or replace obligations contained in applicable legal, regulatory, or specific project protocols.

The Nexus Tracker (NexT) is a data analysis and visualization tool designed to gather and make information on hazards, conflicts, and displacement incidents available for humanitarian response coordination and planning within the ACCESS Consortium, a project funded by ECHO. This note has been developed in line with guidance from the IASC Operational Guidance for Data Responsibility in Humanitarian Action, ensuring the ethical management of Philippines Disaster and Displacement Data, and following the principles of data privacy, protection, and ethics.

Application of Key Principles for the Nexus Tracker

1. Accountability

This note acknowledges our accountability to the affected populations whose data informs this tool, and to the consortium partners who contribute and utilize the data. Accountability is enacted through the data management and protection policies of the lead agencies, the specific mitigation measures outlined in this document, and adherence to donor requirements.

2. Defined Purpose, Necessity, and Proportionality

The purpose of the Nexus Tracker is strictly defined:

• To monitor and analyze hazards, conflicts, and displacement incidents to inform humanitarian programming.
• To forecast the potential impact of disasters to enable anticipatory action.
• To monitor the collective response of the consortium to ensure timeliness and effectiveness.
• To enhance coordination by visualizing partner presence and activities.

All data collected and processed is limited to what is necessary and proportionate to achieve these specific, legitimate humanitarian purposes.

3. Fairness and Legitimacy

The development and use of the Nexus Tracker is a legitimate activity under the humanitarian mandate of the ACCESS Consortium. Data is collected and used to improve the quality, timeliness, and targeting of assistance to vulnerable communities, ensuring fairness in the delivery of aid.

4. Confidentiality

The Nexus Tracker implements organizational safeguards and procedures to protect sensitive data. While much of the data is aggregated, we recognize that location-specific information about conflicts or displacement can be highly sensitive.

• Aggregation: Data is presented in aggregated forms (e.g., charts, maps, KPIs) wherever possible to reduce the risk of identifying specific individuals or small groups.
• Access Control: Access to the raw, underlying datasets is more restricted than access to the dashboard itself and is limited to authorized MEAL and Information Management personnel.

5. Human Rights-Based Approach

The Nexus Tracker is designed to uphold a human rights-based approach. The data is used to promote the principles of equality and non-discrimination by helping to identify and prioritize assistance for the most vulnerable populations, including those with disabilities, as explicitly detailed in the Potential Impact Dashboard.

6. Personal Data Protection

The Nexus Tracker is designed to avoid the collection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The tool aggregates data as counts of individuals, households, or incidents. No names, contact details, or other direct personal identifiers are collected or stored within the system. Should any program activity linked to the tracker require PII, it will be handled separately under the strict personal data protection policies of the collecting partner organization.

7. Data Security

The tracker applies robust organizational and technical safeguards to prevent, mitigate, and respond to security breaches.

• Platform Security: The tool is built on Microsoft Power BI and embedded within a secure Microsoft 365 SharePoint environment. This ecosystem includes strong password-protected access, encryption of data at rest and in transit, and other industry-standard security measures.
• Data Storage: All data is stored on approved, secure cloud servers managed by the lead agency. No raw or sensitive data should be downloaded or stored on personal computers or unsecure devices.
• Minimum Access: Access to the dashboard is restricted to authorized personnel within the consortium partner organizations. Users are granted the minimum level of access required to perform their duties.

8. Data Sharing

The primary purpose of the Nexus Tracker is to facilitate data sharing among ACCESS Consortium partners.

• Internal Sharing: All data within the dashboard is accessible to authorized users from all 14 partners to promote transparency and coordination.
• External Sharing: Sharing data with external actors (e.g., other humanitarian clusters, government bodies) will be strictly controlled. Only aggregated, anonymized data may be shared externally, and any such request will be subject to approval by the consortium’s governing body to ensure it does not pose a risk to affected populations or partners.

9. Data Quality, Retention, and Destruction

• Quality: Data quality is maintained by the MEAL teams of the partner organizations, with validation and cleaning processes managed by the central Information Management team to ensure data is accurate, timely, and complete.
• Retention: Data will be retained for the duration of the project lifecycle, in line with ECHO’s and the lead agency’s data retention policies.
• Destruction: Upon the conclusion of the required retention period, the data will be securely and permanently destroyed according to established protocols.

Further Actions to Implement Key Principles

Data Access and Accuracy: Partner organizations can request corrections to their submitted data by contacting the central MEAL/IM focal point.YesYes

Risk-Informed Approach: A data impact assessment has been implicitly conducted in the design of the dashboard. For example, highly sensitive data is aggregated, and the tool avoids mapping specific household locations to mitigate risks to beneficiaries and staff.

Data Minimization: The data collected is strictly limited to the fields required to populate the dashboard indicators and answer the core questions of the project. No extraneous data is collected.

Informed Consent and Transparency: Data is provided by partner organizations, who have a responsibility to adhere to their own ethical standards for data collection in the field. Partners consent to their data being used in this aggregated platform for the purposes stated above. This guide serves as a key document for transparency on how the data is used.

Nexus Tracker (NexT) User Guide: Philippines Disaster and Displacement Data

Welcome to the Nexus Tracker (NexT) User Guide. Developed by ACCORD for the ACCESS Consortium, the Nexus Tracker is an integrated platform designed to bring together diverse datasets on hazards, conflict, and displacement across the Philippines into one centralized, actionable tool.

This guide is designed for public viewers—including humanitarian actors, local government units, researchers, and academic institutions—to help navigate the platform, understand trends, and support HDP (Humanitarian-Development-Peace) Nexus decision-making.

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1. Getting Started

The Nexus Tracker operates directly in your browser. You can access the public dashboard at rilhub.org/nexus-tracker.

• Tip: For the best viewing experience, expand the interactive dashboard to full-screen mode by clicking the full-screen icon at the bottom right of the Power BI interface.
• Tip: If you need raw dataset exports or information beyond what is visible in the public dashboard, use the Microsoft Forms Data Request Form linked inside the dashboard.

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2. Platform Architecture: Two Core Dashboards

The tracker helps you answer two completely different sets of critical questions:

A. Gaining Insight (Conflict, Hazards, and Displacement)

• Core Question: “What has already happened?”
• Focus: This dashboard provides a comprehensive view of historical and current events to help you analyze trends and geographic hotspots.

B. Developing Foresight (Potential Impact)

• Core Question: “A hazard is coming. What will the potential humanitarian impact be?”
• Focus: This specialized forecasting tool utilizes pre-disaster demographic and vulnerability data to help target anticipatory action and pre-position resources.

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3. Deep Dive: Gaining Insight Dashboard

Use this dashboard for situational analysis, drafting reports, and spotting long-term geographical patterns. It features three main views:

Snapshot View

This is your 30,000-foot quick view of the national situation.

• KPI Cards: Instant headline counts for Total Incident Count, Affected Individuals/Households, and Displaced Individuals/Households.
• Interactive Map: Hover over locations to view instant summary tooltips of local incidents.
• Regional Ranking Charts: Shows affected/displaced individuals by region so you can quickly prioritize where response is needed most.
• Filters: Drill down instantly using the dropdown slicers for Type, Nature, Region, Province, Month, and Year.

Trend View

This view helps identify seasonal spikes, frequency of events, and long-term changes over time.

• Cluster-Based Map: Groups geographic incidents visually.
• Time-Series Charts: Track monthly incidents to easily analyze cyclical patterns (e.g., flooding peaks in Q4).
• Date Coverage Filter: Slices data for custom intervals (e.g., “last 6 months” or “all of 2024”).

Partners View

Displays operational information for all 14 ACCESS Consortium members:
Action Against Hunger, ACCORD, CARE, CO-Multiversity, Humanity & Inclusion, IMAN, Kadtabanga, MOSEP Inc., OXFAM Pilipinas, PDRRN, PLAN Pilipinas, Save the Children, UNYPAD, and UnYPHil-Women.

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4. Deep Dive: Developing Foresight Dashboard

This is designed for pre-disaster risk assessments and impact-based forecasting.

Tropical Cyclones View

• TCWS Selector & Map: Filter by specific Tropical Cyclone Wind Signals (TCWS) to see an automated impact map of the storm’s path.
• Vulnerability Estimators: Calculates specific population metrics at risk, such as:
• Households with fragile shelter materials (helps estimate shelter repair kit needs).
• Families living below the poverty line (helps anticipate food security needs).
• Vulnerable water sources and populations with functional difficulties (essential for inclusive response planning).

Earthquakes View

• Magnitude Filter: Select seismic thresholds (e.g., Magnitude 6.0+) to view vulnerability estimates.
• Detailed WGQ (Washington Group Questions) Table: A granular breakdown of populations living with functional difficulties by type, age, and sex.

Pro Tip: Use the WGQ table for inclusive planning. If the data shows a high density of people with mobility limitations in an earthquake path, local teams can prioritize accessible transport and evacuation centers immediately.

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5. Quick-Reference: Incident Taxonomy

To filter the dashboards effectively, it helps to understand how the Nexus Tracker classifies incidents:

Nature Category	Specific Type Definitions
Conflict Horizontal	Conflicts between non-state actors (e.g., clan feuds/rido, localized crime, political disputes).
Conflict Vertical	Armed confrontations between state security forces and non-state armed groups (e.g., AFP/PNP vs. NPA, ASG, BIFF).
Natural Hazards	Events triggered by natural processes (e.g., Tropical Cyclones, Flooding, Earthquakes, Drought).
Other Human-Induced	Incidents resulting from human action or negligence (e.g., structural fires, oil spills, industrial accidents).

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6. Dashboard Best Practices

• The Filter Funnel: Always start broad. Apply your filters one by one (e.g., Year -> Region -> Nature) to avoid locking up your data or getting lost.
• Reset Often: Always use the “Clear Filters” button before starting a new query. A forgotten filter from a previous search is the most common cause of mismatched data!
• Hover to Discover: Don’t just look at the charts—hover your mouse cursor over map bubbles, bars, and pie slices to reveal precise numbers in hidden tooltips.

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Support & Feedback

• For data inquiries: contact nexustracker@accord.org.ph
• For technical platform issues: reach out to the technical support team via the contact details on rilhub.org.