The need for data responsibility has now been recognised by a wide variety of organisations, both within and outside the humanitarian space. Data responsibility goes beyond the concepts of “data privacy” and “data protection”. It entails a set of principles, processes and tools that support the safe, ethical and effective management of data in humanitarian response.
Whereas many humanitarian organisations have developed policies and guidelines focused on the management of personal data, guidance has been lacking on how to ensure data responsibility in the management of other forms of humanitarian data such as survey results and data sets containing information that could be used to target individuals in conflict areas. The OCHA Data Responsibility Guidelines aim to fill this gap.