TŌTĀRA AFRICA · ZAMBIA
Tōtāra is a Zambian-registered organisation delivering strategic advisory, applied research and programme implementation across Southern Africa — in climate change and resilience, agriculture and food systems, and health systems.
We are led and based in Zambia, and we bring international technical expertise directly into the programmes it serves — no distant head office, no overhead consuming the budget before it reaches delivery, and no substitute for local expertise.
01
Adaptation and resilience programming for the communities and systems most exposed to a changing climate — and the frame through which we approach agriculture and health.
02
Applied remote sensing and data tools that make agricultural risk visible and decisions better — bringing academic methodology directly into operational settings.
03
A systems partner rather than another implementer: implementation quality, community-to-system linkage, and the systems that determine whether health investments last.
These three sectors fail at the same point. A climate adaptation measure only works if households adopt it. An agricultural technology only works if farmers trust and use it. A health intervention only works if people change what they do — and can reach a service that functions when they arrive.
Social and behavioural change is therefore not one component of our programmes. It is the layer running through all of them, informing how we design, implement and evaluate across every sector we work in.
Our defining capability. We connect international academic and technical expertise to in-country delivery — and ensure that what is learned in the field flows back into the research. Our formal partnership with the University of Auckland puts advanced remote sensing methodology directly into operational decision-making.
We build and hold together the partnerships that complex programmes require — across government, universities, donors, local consortia and the private sector. Within months of incorporation we assembled research, implementation and delivery partners across two programme areas.
Detailed founding Articles, a not-for-profit corporate structure, a practising lawyer as Company Secretary, and an Advisory Council providing independent technical oversight. Built in from inception, not retrofitted for a funding round.
Programme design, proposal development and donor strategy informed by senior experience inside humanitarian and multilateral funding institutions — including from the donor side of the table.
A live pilot with Good Nature Agro applying satellite-based yield estimation to smallholder maize fields as an input to their credit scoring framework. Tōtāra provides in-country presence, implementation coordination and the bridge between academic research and field application; the University of Auckland provides the remote sensing expertise. The objective is to improve credit risk assessment and reduce reliance on costly field-based estimates.
We work with governments, universities, donors, philanthropic funders, local consortia and private-sector partners. If you’re building something in this space, we’d like to hear from you.
Contact Tōtāra