Tools for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction is a series of 14 guidance notes for use by development organisations in adapting programming and project appraisal and evaluation tools to mainstream disaster risk reduction into their development work in hazard-prone countries. The series is also of relevance to stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation. This guidance note introduces basic approaches to vulnerability and capacity assessment and analysis1 (VCA), explains how it can be integrated into the project planning process and shows how natural hazards and disasters can be factored into it. It focuses on the use of VCA in development projects, but the approach can also be used in disaster reduction and post-disaster recovery. It is aimed at staff from diverse disciplines.