After Action Report Guidelines and Template

Emergency Management Assistance Program
Version date: July 31 2024

Purpose
Context
Guidance
Objectives
Template

1. Purpose

This document provides guidance and expectations on developing After Action Reports for use by partners funded by Indigenous Service Canada (ISC) to provide emergency management services through the Emergency Management Assistance Program including;

First Nations communities, Tribal Councils and organizations;
provinces and Territories; and
third party emergency management service providers.

ISC developed this guidance to help organizations create debrief activities and After Action Reports following an emergency.

These Guidelines and Template were developed in collaboration with a steering committee made up of 12 First Nations emergency management practitioners and consultation with ISC regional offices.

Certain organizations may already conduct similar lessons learned activities under a variety of titles, such as hotwashes, debriefs and after action sessions. Preparing After Action Reports as a regular practice will give all organizations an opportunity to solicit meaningful reflections, analysis and recommendations that will contribute to emergency management service improvements.

2. Context

As outlined in the Indigenous Services Canada National On-reserve All Hazards Emergency Management Plan, through the Emergency Management Assistance Program (EMAP), the department provides funding to First Nations communities and other eligible recipients so they can build resiliency, prepare for and respond to natural hazards.

For more information about the Emergency Management Assistance Program, please visit: Emergency Management Assistance Program.

3. Guidance

A. Expectations

This guidance and the template below are not intended to replace existing effective reporting templates or to prescribe a specific format. Service providers are welcome to use either the template below or their own format. ISC recognizes that First Nations and emergency events have their own context and set of unique circumstances. Organizations are asked to consider the template sections for inclusion in After Action Reports and may include any additional information, sections or reports as they see fit.

In recognition that emergency events are increasing in frequency and intensity, developing After Action Reports after every event, while desirable, may present an unreasonable burden to provide information which may not be feasible. Therefore, service providers are encouraged to, at a minimum, provide After Action Reports for events that are considered more significant. Examples of significant events include events that:

are long-lasting
result in significant losses or damages
have a high number of evacuees
presented significant and sometimes unique challenges and lessons learned

After Action Reports can vary in length and detail, and service providers may consider providing more in-depth reports for events that are considered significant.

After Action Reports, with consent of the First Nation, should be submitted to the affected First Nation(s) and the relevant ISC regional office. For more information please visit: ISC regional office emergency management contacts and resources.

B. Timelines

It is acknowledged that it can take weeks or months after a major event to conduct in depth reviews, and that there is not always a clear "end date" to an emergency event.

Service providers are encouraged to provide reports to the affected First Nation(s) and their ISC regional office within 3 months of the conclusion of the emergency event in order to support ongoing program analysis and improvement of services to First Nations. After Action Reports can also be submitted more frequently, such as bi-annually or an "end of season" report.

C. Contributors

Service providers should seek input from the main partners and organizations that supported the delivery of emergency management services, wherever feasible. This could include ISC regional offices.

Service providers must seek input from First Nations that received services, and First Nations autonomy and First Nations-led documenting and review processes must be respected. First Nations could be engaged through their leadership, emergency management coordinators or other responsible staff employed by First Nations, Tribal Councils or other First Nations organizations. Please note in the After Action Report whether First Nations recipients contributed to the report (Section C of the template below) and indicate whether they formally approved (Section D of the template below).

Any conflicting or differing perspectives should be reflected. In the situation that a First Nation prefers to provide an After Action Report to ISC independently from service providers, they are encouraged to do so.

D. Data and information

ISC will embed individual First Nations' rights to assert the principles of ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP), and adjust the guidelines to align with the preferences of the First Nation, as required.

Any First Nations information included in the After Action Report must be provided with the free, prior and informed consent of First Nations to be used, distributed and stored in compliance with OCAP.

First Nations information includes information from First Nations, about First Nations, and on First Nations lands and resources.
First Nations information contained in After Action Reports is owned by the First Nation.
Information about First Nations individuals should be anonymized and their privacy respected, as per the Privacy Act.

With consent of the First Nation, After Action Reports would be shared with ISC, including the relevant regional office and the Emergency Management Directorate (ISC EMD). ISC EMD will be responsible for storage and analysis of the After Actions Reports which will be:

stored in ISC EMD's departmental server and will be accessible by current and future ISC EMD staff. The relevant First Nation can request access, return or destruction of their information at any time. After Action Reports will only be shared further with the consent of the First Nation.
analyzed by ISC EMD staff for trends and overall findings.

ISC EMD staff will develop an annual report with overall trends from After Actions Reports to be shared with contributing service providers, First Nations and Government of Canada staff, in order to enable briefing on program strengths and weaknesses, and support continual program improvement.

4. Objectives

The objectives of an After Action Report are to:

gain insight and understanding through an analysis of actions taken
identify successes, how and why they happened, and how they can be built upon in the future
identify challenges, how and why they happened, and how they can be improved upon
reflect on the extent to which services provided were culturally relevant and addressed the needs of those facing greater barriers
develop recommendations for both ISC and partners to inform their future actions
recommendations could inform the ongoing regional negotiation of multilateral service agreements addressing service delivery limitations

5. Template

The intention of producing an After Action Report is to analyse the management or response to an incident or event by identifying strengths to be maintained and built upon, as well as identifying potential areas of improvement.

Key information	Details
A. Title
B. Date submitted
C. Contributors	Organization(s) Contact name(s) Contact information
D. Approved by	Indicate which contributing organisations approved / concurred with the final report and its findings
E. Description of emergency event	Time period Location(s) Nature of emergency Timeline / chronology Any additional information related to the event
F. Roles and responsibilities	List of major partners / organisations involved Brief descriptions of their roles and responsibilities
G. Key activities	Key preparedness activities (where relevant) Key response activities Key recovery activities and timing (where relevant) Key mitigation work being planned (where relevant)
H. Description of debrief process	How was information for this report gathered?
I. Successes	You may wish to structure content under sections I and J by theme. Themes will be determined by the authors of the report, depending on the nature of the event. Examples of themes seen in previous After Action Reports include but are not limited to: emergency preparedness / readiness human resources/capacity funding technology and equipment security collaboration between organizations public communications surge support data and information management decision making processes service and policy gaps re-entry to community Prompting questions to consider: What worked well? How and why? What factors or actions contributed to the situation being positive? Who was involved? Who was impacted? How did it impact them? How can we build on this success?
J. Challenges	Prompting questions to consider: What went wrong? How and why? What factors or actions contributed to this challenge? Who was involved? Who was impacted? How did it impact them? What would you do differently next time? What additional resources would have been helpful? How can we improve upon challenges?
K. Cultural relevance	See Interim Service Standards for Culturally-Relevant Emergency Management Services for more guidance Key considerations include: What efforts were made to provide emergency services that are culturally-relevant? How was Indigenous knowledge incorporated ? How did the services support Indigenous reclamation of land, culture, language, community, family, history and traditions? How did services address the needs of those facing greater barriers? This may include: people living in poverty people with disabilities and/or chronic health conditions women, gender-diverse, two-spirit, trans, or gender non-conforming people lesbian, gay, bisexual people children and seniors At a minimum, provide details on: staffing location / amenities language of services food and other essentials
L. Recommendations / Next steps	Prompting questions to consider: What changes might lead to better results in the future? What could be done now to improve the current situation? What requires attention and resources? Who is responsible for making recommended changes (e.g. who are recommendations being made to?) Is a strength-based approach and language used throughout?
M. Appendices	Attach copies of any other relevant reports or supporting materials

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Date modified:: 2024-10-18