Tōtāra Strategy and Implementation Limited is a Zambia-based not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, incorporated in March 2026 to deliver strategic advisory, applied research and programme implementation across Southern Africa.
We operate at the intersection of research, systems design and delivery — supporting governments, development partners, academic institutions and private-sector actors to design and implement interventions that are evidence-based, locally grounded and operationally effective.
Our founding principle
Too much technical capability in this sector sits far from where it is needed, mediated through layers of head-office overhead, and too often treated as a substitute for the expertise that already exists in country. Tōtāra was built the other way round: a locally embedded Zambian platform that brings international academic and technical expertise directly into in-country programmes, alongside Zambian expertise rather than in place of it — and that ensures learning from implementation flows back into the research and policy work.
Both founding directors are based in Zambia. That is a structural choice, not a detail.
Localisation, for us, is not a compliance box on a donor form. It is the operating model:
Decisions are made where the work happens.
We carry no large northern overhead, so a greater share of every programme budget reaches delivery.
Our purpose is institutional strengthening — leaving systems, methods and capability behind that continue working after a programme cycle closes.
Academic rigour is integrated with practical delivery so that research outputs are directly usable in operational decision-making, not filed and forgotten.
The name reflects this. Tōtāra is one of New Zealand’s most enduring native timbers — strong, workable, built for structural purpose rather than short-term engagement. It was proposed by our Zambian co-founder, and carries a personal connection for founder Jason Andean, whose family ties reach back to New Zealand.
The boundaries between climate resilience, agriculture, health, education and livelihoods are dissolving. Climate change is an accelerating driver of health outcomes — heat, food security, water, vector-borne disease, displacement — and of agricultural risk. A household facing crop failure is facing a health outcome.
We work across these connections deliberately, including at the humanitarian–development–peace nexus, rather than treating each sector as a separate funding silo. And we hold behaviour at the centre: across climate, agriculture and health alike, the decisive question is whether people adopt, trust and sustain what a programme offers.
Our Articles of Association were drafted deliberately — long, specific and detailed — rather than as a minimal registration formality. We wanted the founding document itself to state clearly what the organisation is for and how it will operate, so that our procedures, systems and ethical commitments are constitutional obligations rather than policies that can quietly drift.
They set out:
strategic advisory and institutional strengthening; applied research and data-driven tools; community-level programmes that strengthen local capacity and livelihoods; and a durable platform of excellence for long-term work in strategy, science, technology and implementation.
a standing obligation on all directors, advisors, staff and contractors to declare and manage any actual or potential conflict, not a one-off disclosure.
zero tolerance for fraud, corruption and bribery, with mandatory reporting and referral to law enforcement where appropriate.
named as a founding principle: equal participation, equal pay for equal value, and active attention to barriers facing underrepresented groups, applied across staffing, programmes and partnerships.
through an Advisory Council appointed on the basis of specific expertise, with all directors holding equal standing on the Board.
Legal structure
Private company limited by guarantee, not-for-profit
Registration
PACRA No. 120261042857, Republic of Zambia
Registered activity
ISIC 7220, Research and experimental development in social sciences
Governing legislation
Companies Act No. 10 of 2017 (Zambia)
Primary geography
Zambia and Southern Africa
Incorporated
March 2026