CARE International

After Action Review

General reflections

  1. Objective setting

Each country will have its own specific purpose in an AAR.

For CARE Pakistan, exploring issues related to ‘collaboration’ and ‘communications and information management’ were identified prior to the AAR as areas that continue to challenge CI’s emergency response. Other country offices may highlight different areas.

Future reviews could more focus on the outcome areas defined CI’s Emergency Response Performance Measurement and Reporting Metrics System: timely response of the humanitarian disaster;quality and accountability (and appropriate to the scale of the disaster); sectoral competence; and revenue generation

If the Review occurs within six weeks or so of the initial response, then it provides an opportunity to take stock and to adjust course as necessary.

In India, delays meant that the AAR took place six months after the cyclone response. Thus CARE India’sAAR focused on future readiness and how to integrate emergency preparedness into longer-term development programming.

Similarly, the AAR in Pakistan was delayed until nine months after the cyclone response, because of the political and social unrest and insecurity. As a consequence the focus was more on critical reflection to ask: what do we need to do to enhance our emergency readiness? And how can we help our partners to be emergency prepared?

  1. Disaster storyline

Constructing a visual story line is an important and useful exercise for a number of reasons. The AAR is often the first time that various players from across different levels of the organisation come together. They have been working on ‘bits’ of the response and may not have a sense of the overall strategy or of how the different bits fit. They may have been operating in a reactive and problem solving mode (fixing things) and be unaware of how much the country office has achieved. They may also be operating with different sets of assumptions and ‘facts.’

In CARE Pakistan, we approached the storyline exercise in the following way. The facilitator worked with one of the CARE staff prior to the workshop (first by email and then 1-1 during the in-country prep day). She then developed a power point of the highlights of the response.

Note: in constructing the power point, we worked on the principle that ‘less is more.’ There were a large number of pictures (rather than text) and the power point drew on available facts and impact data. It also focused the participants’ attention on specific issues (framed as questions).

During the Review the staff person presented the power pointto a plenary. This was followed by table talk and a brief plenary. The storyline flowed into the next agenda item, using storytelling to identify successes (see below).

The storyline was later synthesised and documented into a one-page summary (see attachment)

  1. Bring in data

Too often the participants come into the meeting with ‘stories’ that they hold to be true or personal opinions about what needs to get done. Participants should be asked to conduct a mini SWOC exercise with their team members and to ask communities for feedback before coming to the Review and to represent their constituents and not their individual perspectives.

Inviting partner organisations can add a different layer of data, but only if CARE staff commit to open listening. Inviting communities to participate in parts of the meeting would open up more possibilities for learning.

Summarise sitrep data (usually to numerous and voluminous for easy digestion) as well as internal evaluations and consultant reports. In CARE Pakistan we provided specific moments to present on and reflect on various data. We also brought in a capacity assessment tool (see below) to help staff think more deeply about their strengths and weaknesses.

The better the data input, the more likely participants will engage in critical, action-oriented reflection, rather than ‘pointing the finger’ or ‘beating up.’

  1. Negotiate 2.5 days

In both CARE Pakistan and CARE India, the two-day AAR was followed by a third half-day meeting. The meeting was attended by the country office ERT and provided an opportunity to re-visit the data generated during the review and to build agreement on priority actions and resource allocation. Who will do what, by when, and how?

This half-day meeting helped to instil an understanding that all country office staff owns the work – not just the emergency group – and that the emergency-development programming split is not helpful.

What we did in CARE Pakistan

Workshop Aim

To assess

  • Country office performance in responding to [emergency]
  • Support provided to the country office by CARE International members and the CARE Emergency Group (CEG)
  • Achievements and challenges experienced by implementing partners and levels of support provided by the country office to the partners.

Workshop Objectives

  1. To assess performance of [country office’s] response to the [emergency]
  • Achievements and issues addressed to date
  • Areas of collaboration and relationship management (across CARE, with the partners and with relevant government agencies)
  • Communications and information management
  1. To identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges
  1. To build on the SWOC analysis to make recommendations for:
  • Adjustments in the current response
  • Enhancing future disaster preparedness and emergency response.
  1. Identify key actions to ensure that lessons learned inform future planning both in country and CARE International organisational capabilities in emergency response and preparedness

Agenda flow

Day one

  1. Welcome
  • Either by Country Director or senior program person
  • Opportunity to welcome and to set leadership expectations = this is what I am looking for
  1. Introductions to the workshop – facilitator
  • Overview of objectives and agenda
  • Introductions and ‘what success will look like’

  1. Disaster storyline

An outline of the -response to from onset of disaster to the present (described above)

  • Major activities and outputs, work in progress, overall response strategy
  • Table talk followed by questions for clarification in plenary

Morning Tea Break

  1. How well did we do

Using storytelling to identify successes – process draws on an adaptation of most significant change methodology.

  • Each participant draws on the CI Programming Principles to identify one story of success (‘what worked well’) that demonstrate the CI Program Principles in CARE’s emergency response.
  • Each table will then select one story to report back to the plenary.

Note: be sure to give the participants a structure for ‘what makes a good story’, otherwise the stories will be rambling and off the point

Lunch

  1. What others are saying about our work

A brief presentation of data generated from external sources.

CARE Pakistan was able to draw on data generated in close-out interviews conducted by staff with some partner organisations as well as an evaluation conducted by an external consultant.

The purpose here was to focus participants on issues that were fact-based, rather than ‘feel good’ impressions or ‘I’m-holding-to-bring-right’ feelings.

  1. Identification of strengths and weaknesses

Areas to be explored across all levels:
  1. All aspects of project cycle management (assessment, design, implementation, M&E)
  2. Coordination and leadership
  3. Relationship management
  4. Communications
  5. Other?
/ Group work in the following functional areas:
  • Program assessment team, design & field operations
  • Finance & fund-raising
  • Human resources
  • Communications & Information management
  • Logistics and procurement
  • Partnerships

Afternoon Break

  1. Group report back to the plenary
  • Each working group reports back to the plenary
  • The plenary is asked to identify emerging patterns
  • The facilitator then reflects back the emerging findings against previous AAR findings (where applicable)
  • Final plenary discussion: “so what did we do better this time?”
  1. Capacity assessment exercise
  • A capacity assessment tool was given out to the group at the end of day one. The intention was to help the meeting participants identify gaps and to probe areas that they might have overlooked thus far. The results were synthesised overnight and then replayed back to the group on day two.
  • The capacity assessment tool is a bridge between days one and two – before we move into future planning and solution making, let’s draw in another piece of data. What is this data telling us about our strengths and weaknesses (rather than what we just feel).
  • The Capacity Assessment Tool and the synthesis of the data generated can be found in the CARE Pakistan AAR report.
  1. Wrap up and feedback exercise – facilitator

Day two

  1. Getting started
  • Feedback on day one
  • Review of day one outputs, followed by plenary discussion
  • Capacity assessment exercise – what do the data tell us?
  1. Identification of ‘Opportunities and Challenges’ plus ‘What needs to change’
  • Opportunities and Challenges
  • What needs to change (systems and behaviours)?

Areas to be considered:
  • Project cycle
  • Coordination and leadership
  • Relationship management
  • Communications
  • Other?
/ Groups:
  • Program assessment team, design & field operations
  • Finance & fund-raising
  • Human resources
  • Communications & Information management
  • Logistics and procurement
  • Partnerships

Morning break (taken by groups as they work on above)

  1. Groups report out
  • Opportunities and challenges
  • What needs to change?

Lunch

  1. Group report out continued

Afternoon tea break

  1. Plenary Discussion
  • Comparison with CARE’s experience responding to the earthquake
  • Identification of emerging lessons
  1. Closing
  • Summary of what has been achieved plus what will happen on following day
  • Individual commitment exercise – each person is asked to write down one personal commitment (phrased as “I commit to...’) s/he will make to address one of the action items identified during the meeting
  • Closing remarks

Day three (half day)

  1. Core team meet to refine outputs and to develop action plan
  • Participants to include CO ERT
  • Opportunity to welcome and to set leadership expectations = this is what I am looking for

Attachment : Output from storyline exercise

CARE Pakistan: Snapshot of the response

2007 /
June 23–24 / Tropical cyclone Yemyin hits coastal areas of Pakistan, leading to widespread rains and floods in Baluchistan and Sindh.
529 dead & missing 2.5 million people affected 371.000 people rendered homeless 6.500 villages affected 71,000 houses destroyed/damaged
June 26 / Floods strike
June 27 / In-country ERT is activated
July 2 / Emergency Alert sent to CI and RMU
July 4 / GO – CARE decides to engage in the response
First SITREP is released CO requests CI for funding (ERF, C-AUS, CUK)
Two Senior team deployed to the field to conduct a preliminary Rapid Assessment
July 5 / CARE identifies and forms partnerships with local NGOs (FPAP, SPO, TF)
July 5 / First 2 trucks containing NFIs dispatched
Emergency Response Strategy finalised
Key priority areas identified included: shelter, health, water and sanitation, psychosocial and education, and partner capacity building
Targeted beneficiaries = 50,000; estimated budget: 1.5m; initial partners: FPAP, TF & SPO; initial geographic area: Turbat, Nasirabad, Badin & Shahdadkot
First Health camp organized by FPAP in Turbat and Badin (targeting 90,000)
July 7 / Looting of CARE’s trucks full of relief supplies
Roads inundated with water Communication problems
Communities dissatisfied with the efficiency of Government response – many were left stranded for days
July 10 onwards / Community mobilisation for distribution
July 16 / Much awaited supplies arrive (shelter: total beneficiaries = 10,000; NFIs: total beneficiaries= 30,000)
Water & Sanitation activities begin (total beneficiaries = 70,000)
July 19 / Deployment of further staff to the field to facilitate local partners
Team from CARE Japan visit CO to assess situation in the flood affected areas
July 23 / Psychosocial project begins (total beneficiaries = 6,400)
July 26 / Medicines procured for PIMS Through UN Health Cluster, (US$8,000)
July 31 / Training of partners
August / CARE participates in WB-ADB DNA CARE office established in Karachi
September / First transitional school established (total beneficiaries: 1,200 school-aged children)
2008
January / Winterisation program begins
Independent evaluation conducted