In early 2003 Tearfund interviewed nine key donor organisations to determine the level of priority they give to disaster risk reduction within their relief and development programming, and the reasons behind this level of prioritisation.

The report concludes that without greater investment in, and mainstreaming of, disaster risk reduction, current long-term development efforts will be severely undermined. By contrast, progress on mainstreaming would protect and add value to other sorts of investment in development, and save lives. There is no valid reason why this cannot happen.