International Science and Technology Institute, Inc. (ISTI) is a minority-owned, private, for-profit, consulting firm providing assistance to developing countries through technical, managerial, and financial expertise in the fields of economic and social development. Working in more than 60 countries since it was established in 1977, ISTI has forged partnerships with organizations and individuals at the local, national and regional levels. The ISTI approach stresses innovation and flexibility, with a sensitivity to the cultural and geophysical factors unique to each area of the world.
CAPABILITIES
ISTI is dedicated to the challenging task of making international technical cooperation work and has established a solid reputation for identifying, recruiting, fielding, and managing technical assistance personnel worldwide. ISTI is currently the prime-and sub-contractor for several multi-year projects that operate in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. It also provides several short-term consultant teams to various agencies worldwide annually. ISTI’s portfolio of projects is managed by its three specialized groups.
- Private Enterprise and Economics
- Health, Population, and Nutrition
- Agriculture and Natural Resources
A hallmark of ISTI’s work is its successful collaboration with local firms and experts in the countries where it operates. ISTI is known for its ability to recruit local specialists in developing countries. In Sri Lanka, for example, ISTI had a strong network of business consultants and socioeconomic specialists. In Indonesia, as another example, ISTI employed 30 full-time Indonesian staff in a variety of technical and managerial capacities.
ISTI takes pride in its decentralized operations and systems instituted to allow projects to reach their full potential. Working arrangements with local banks, financial agents, and technical organizations, and adherence to local laws and customs ensure the success and timeliness of ISTI’s contributions to economic growth.
Decentralization has been successful because the firm has developed the critical systems that provide each project manager with the tools necessary for effective project management. ISTI also has in place the financial systems and controls that allow it to forecast project costs and control contract spending while meeting deliverables and performance schedules. Over the past 27 years, ISTI has implemented more than 79 multi-year projects, 59 as the prime contractor and 20 as a subcontractor, valued at more than $131 million — on time and within budget.
ISTI has significant experience in planning and conducting study tours and participant training programs. These tours and programs, covering a broad array of goals and topics and conducted in a number of countries, are tailored to meet the specific needs and interests of the clients.
ISTI also provides technical assistance to international agencies, governments, public institutions, and private firms.
SERVICES
Within the broad scope of substantive experience encompassed by its three specialized groups, ISTI has extensive experience in providing the following types of services to its clients:
- Implementation of Long-Term Technical Projects
- Policy and Economic Analysis
- Project Design, Evaluation and Monitoring
- Institutional and Human Resource Development
- Management Consulting
- Feasibility Studies
- Project Finance
PEOPLE
ISTI has a staff of multilingual professionals from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America who have many years of resident experience in developing countries. The professional staff represents a wide range of technical expertise — population, medicine, epidemiology, nutrition, tropical disease control, health-sector finance, energy, water resource management and sanitation, engineering, agriculture, natural resource management, environmental protection, urban and rural development, information management, geographic information systems, economics, investment banking, trade, financial analysis, capital market development, marketing, training and institutional development. The expertise brought to ISTI by its permanent staff is multiplied many times over by the wealth of experience ISTI offers through extensive, high-level, professional networks and its consultant roster of more than 3,000 specialists. Since its establishment in 1977, the firm has consistently provided experts with specific technical and language skills and geographic experience, fielding them in as little as two weeks from the time of request. ISTI arranges the services of consultants on short-term assignments and regularly has multiple teams working around the world simultaneously.
ISTI’s technical and managerial project personnel are backstopped by experienced support staff grouped in the areas of contracts, finance, administration, communications and procurement. The firm’s home office staff assists consultants and clients with editing, translation, computer analysis, graphics, and report/proposal production.
FACILITIES
ISTI headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. The office complex is a modern facility that provides space for staff and consultants, providing accommodation for meetings and access to computer network, communications, and video facilities. The firm also maintains project offices overseas in Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia.
ISTI Inc. 