Preparing a country for disaster will become a core part of the UK government’s development programmes around the world to ensure a faster and more efficient response to major disasters.

In its official response to Lord Ashdown’s independent review of humanitarian disasters, the Department for International Development (DfID) said on Wednesday that disaster risk reduction plans will be built into all its country programmes by 2015. It hopes this will save more lives and safeguard gains made towards achieving the millennium development goals.

More resources will be focused on establishing cyclone warning alarms and public shelters, building earthquake-resistant hospitals and schools, and building more and better flood defences.

DfID offices in Nepal (a country expected to experience a major disaster in the near future), Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique will be the first to implement disaster risk plans.

Britain will also call for an overhaul of UN leadership to ensure a more co-ordinated response to disaster relief. In his report, published in March, Lord Ashdown criticised the UN’s response to disasters, and urged the UK to push for reform of the system to stop situations where one agency, such as Unicef, finds itself competing against the World Health Organisation.

The UK will also increase funding to the World Bank’s global fund for disaster risk reduction and consider increasing funding and support to NGOs and the Red Cross specifically to increase resilience.

It will also appoint a team to identify and develop innovative responses to disaster, including satellite mapping to track the movement of people affected by flooding and the use of mobile phones to get information to victims.

More specialists, including surgeons, scientists and weather experts, will be sent into disaster areas alongside the international search and rescue teams.

The UK will also begin discussions with Brazil, China and the Gulf states to find ways to work together in a crisis (this could be expanded to include India and Russia), and will seek ways to draw in the private sector.

“Whether it is making sure that hospitals can survive earthquakes, preventing mass starvation, or helping countries weather financial and food crises, it is clear that the more resilient countries are the better chance they have of developing,” the international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, said in the forward to the government’s response.

“Time and time again, British people have been generous to those devastated by disaster.

“Lord Ashdown’s review says that the UK response is widely praised, but we can do better. The changes I am announcing today will ensure Britain is at the forefront of disaster response. Through this action we will make sure our efforts save as many lives as possible.”

Lord Ashdown said he had “every confidence” the UK can improve humanitarian response. “Now the hard work starts,” he said.

The Red Cross and NGOs have welcomed the report.

Nigel Young, the head of emergencies at medical aid agency Merlin, said: “We were particularly pleased to hear Andrew Mitchell endorse the importance of resilience… This work often goes unnoticed, but can save millions of lives and limit the trauma endured by vulnerable communities.”

Ross Mountain, director general of the international organisation DARA, said: “Considerable interest in the issues and proposals developed in the HERR [Ashdown’s review] has been expressed not only in the UK, but also internationally among other major donors and the UN system. It can be expected that the new approach announced by the secretary of state will positively impact the humanitarian system at large.”

Lord Ashdown’s report predicted that by 2015, around 375 million people will be affected by climate-related disasters every year. In 2010, 263 million people were affected by disasters, 110 million more than in 2004.