Applied Research & Systems Lab · Zambia
We study the institutional, digital, and financial conditions that allow Nature-based Solutions to scale.
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The challenge
In Zambia and across the Southern African region, Nature-based Solutions are gaining relevance but are rarely studied comparatively. There is limited cross-programme evidence on how incentive structures deliver value, which digital tools persist beyond pilots, and which community institutions enable lasting restoration.
Zambia presents a strong opportunity to study these dynamics in practice, with further relevance for the Southern African region.
Our hypothesis
Aid in Africa is phasing out. The next generation of NbS programming will not be funded by donors. It will be financed by the economic value that productive landscapes generate — through value chains, payment for ecosystem services, Water Funds, and green finance instruments.
Kubalo Labs exists to build the evidence base that makes that transition possible: identifying which incentives work, which digital systems last, and which policy frameworks can hold everything together, in this era of significant technological change.
Our approach
Three interconnected lines of inquiry — each producing evidence with direct implications for policy, investment, and practice.
Where we are now
The work is underway. The Lower Kafue River Basin is our primary field site — one of Zambia's most ecologically and hydrologically significant landscapes, and the focus of an evolving conservation governance system.
The systems are active and the research is ongoing.
Collaboration
We work alongside organisations developing landscape-scale programmes — from policy design to field implementation and financing structures.
Applied work is carried out in collaboration with affiliated organisations and project partners, with a focus on generating evidence that informs real-world systems.
If that includes you, we welcome the conversation.
From the field
Observations, findings, and reflections from active research in the Kafue River Basin — written for practitioners, partners, and anyone working on the same problems.
Follow the work, read the evidence, and reach out if it speaks to what you do.
The evidence on what works in NbS — which incentives last, which tools stick, which finance instruments hold — does not yet exist at the scale the field needs. Zambia's landscapes hold more potential than the current evidence base reflects. Kubalo Labs exists to close that gap — methodically, in the field, with findings designed to travel.