More than 1,000 people worldwide enrolled in the first 24 hours after WHO published an online course to introduce public health practitioners to the knowledge and skills needed for the successful management and facilitation of an after action review (AAR) using WHO methodology.

The course, launched at the beginning of November 2019 on the openWHO platform, takes learners through the context, purpose and description of AAR practice in the context of public health emergencies, the key steps in conducting an AAR, the needed facilitation skills and the description of the available resources published by WHO on AAR.

More than 1,400 downloads of the course materials were registered the first day following the launch. The target audience consists of International Health Regulations (IHR) NFPs, WHO staff, health professionals, partners and any person interested in reviewing and learning from the response to a public health event or emergency to be better prepared for the future.

Dr. Beulah Dukanwojo Suleman from Nigeria provided feedback describing it as “one of the best courses I have taken so far. There is so much value embedded in it….successfully managing and facilitating an AAR following an emergency response helps optimize resilient and practicable steps for achieving an efficient preparedness and response system.”

The course is part of the strategy for the Department of Health Security Preparedness within the WHO Health Emergencies Programme to accelerate the implementation of AARs globally. This is done in part through transferring knowledge about the AAR methodology at the country level so that AARs may be integrated as part of an emergency management cycle fostering continuous learning and improvement of health systems.

The course is offered through OpenWHO, WHO’s new interactive, web-based, knowledge-transfer platform offering online courses to improve the response to health emergencies. OpenWHO enables the Organization and key partners to transfer life-saving knowledge to large numbers of frontline responders. Users may access the OpenWHO course on AAR management and facilitation at this link: https://openwho.org/courses/AAR-en

As of December 2019, WHO has in the past three years supported more than 59 AARs in 39 countries. The objective is to build capacity for health emergency preparedness and response as part of IHR (2005) implementation. In April 2019, WHO published the Guidance on After Action Review (AAR)

[1]

and accompanying toolkits

[2]

 to assist in planning, preparing and conducting an AAR following the response to a public health event or emergency.