The global practice of after action review

Overview

An AAR is a qualitative review of actions taken in response to an emergency as a means of identifying
best practices, gaps and lessons learned. The AAR offers a structured approach for individuals and partners to reflect on their experiences and perceptions of the response, in order to systematically and collectively identify what worked and what did not, why and how to improve. AAR can range from quick informal debriefing sessions with team members to larger workshops with broad, multisectoral participation led by facilitators. Importantly, AARs are not external evaluations of an individual‘s or a team’s performance. They do not seek to measure performance against benchmarks or key performance standards but are a constructive, collective learning opportunity, where the relevant stakeholders involved in the preparedness for, and response to, the public health event under review can find common ground on how to improve preparedness and response capability.
This literature review was undertaken to identify and build understanding around principle characteristics of AARs, including their methodologies, formats, planning and roles. It also sought to look at AARs in relation to forms of evaluation and different types of learning. The findings of this review ultimately aimed to understand the current methodologies for conducting AAR and contribute to the design of the WHO Guidance for AAR, published on the WHO website in 2019.