Abstracting the gap between awareness and action: the Hazard Literacy Framework (HLF) for disaster risk reduction in the Global South

This paper addresses the much-needed but mostly overlooked awareness-action gap in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in developing countries, stressing the limits of traditional, knowledge-focused strategies. Here, we introduce the Hazard Literacy Framework (HLF), a new conceptual framework that reconceptualizes hazard literacy as a multi-dimensional continuum along four facets: cognitive (knowledge), affective (emotional connection), communicative (access to information and trust), and behavioral (engaging in preparedness). The HLF development was informed by a range of methods drawing on extensive literature and employing geospatial insights and in-depth comparative cases from countries such as India, the Philippines, and Haiti. The model pinpoints where there are specific tumors in the path to action from awareness. Our research indicates that factors such as institutional trust, cultural narratives, and socio-economic conditions significantly influence how people transition between these literacy domains. For instance, iconic research in Bangladesh revealed that 85% of people could identify cyclones as a major hazard, but only 35% were equipped with an evacuation kit. The HLF is a useful heuristic that allows policymakers and practitioners to develop focused interventions that move beyond generic awareness-raising and cultivate those two critical emotional and behavioral capacities that are important for building resilience. This framework represents a significant shift in DRR, which is vital for protecting lives and preserving development achievements in a time of increasing climate risks.