TOOL T-06 | Register & Tracker | Module 2: Signal Detection & Early Warning

Signal Tracker

WHEN TO USE Continuous, active throughout the entire project lifecycle from pre-development to operations.

How to Use It

1. Create a shared log accessible to all team members who interact with communities: ComRel officers, field staff, contractor supervisors, and LGU liaisons.

2. Train all team members to recognize signal types: verbal (indirect comments, hesitation, side conversations), behavioral (decreased attendance, withdrawal), contextual (rumors, community mobilization), and institutional (unusual LGU requests, media inquiries).

3. For each signal, log: date, source, channel, description, initial severity assessment (L/M/H), and any context that helps interpret it.

4. Review the tracker at least weekly. Look for patterns across signals, not just individual entries.

5. Apply escalation thresholds: if a signal recurs, intensifies, or implicates multiple groups, trigger the Signal Escalation Protocol.

6. Close signals only when resolved. A signal that disappears without resolution may have been suppressed, not addressed.

7. At phase transitions, review the full signal history to identify patterns that should inform the next stage's engagement approach.

Purpose

To create a single shared record of all early concerns, informal expressions of worry, behavioral signals, and indirect indicators of community unease, before they become formal grievances. The Signal Tracker is the early warning instrument of the SE-GRM system.

Field Rationale

In all four field sites, concerns that eventually escalated into formal disputes had been present earlier as informal signals (side comments at meetings, hesitation during consultations, changes in community meeting attendance). In none of the sites was there a functioning signal tracking system. The Signal Tracker is designed to capture and make actionable what would otherwise remain invisible.