The Interdisciplinary Research Consultants (IdRC) is an international consulting firm with offices in Jordan and the US.  Combining the experience of senior professionals from a variety of backgrounds, the IdRC delivers high quality consulting to address the needs of governmental organizations, private sector entities, and international organizations in the Middle East and other developing countries. The firm emphasizes on Service and Quality performance for its Clients. 

The IdRC was originally established to provide consulting services in areas mainly related to engineering.  Those included water resources studies, transportation and traffic management studies, and environmental management studies.  However, over the years, it has expanded and diversified its services to include social and socio-economic studies, feasibility studies, in addition to consulting services in the areas of economic development, public sector and state enterprise reform, private sector development, and project development and implementation. 

Each of these areas includes specific services that are very relevant to the agencies and international financial institutions that the IdRC serves.  The company’s leadership is keen on appropriate balances between public interest and private entrepreneurship that leads to social progress and economic development.

 

 

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

The IdRC provides services to both public and private sector clients in a number of countries throughout the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Through its innovative leadership, the IdRC has helped several local and international clients across the region.
The IdRC has planned researched, designed, implemented, and evaluated projects in the following areas:

 

Infrastructure

Infrastructure development help economies grow, protects natural resources, and improve public health and quality of life. The IdRC experts specialize in the pre-engineering phases of infrastructure project by integrating the physical engineering systems components into the environmental, social, institutional, and economic aspect of beneficiaries. IdRC has the experience in the management and institutional issues related to infrastructure.  Expertise includes water, power, energy, and transport.

Specific sector services include:

Feasibility Studies	Projects Assessments
Municipal service support	Rural roads
Renewable energy	Waste management
Environmental impact assessment	Institutional and organizational development

 

Management Consulting

As the need for professional and specialized advice grows, other industries such as government, quasi-government and not-for-profit agencies are turning to the same managerial principles that have helped the private sector for years.  The IdRC extends services to help organizations improve their performance, primarily through the thorough analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement. 

The IdRC’s general approach to management consulting services entails working closely with clients and stakeholders to clearly identify their service needs.  This phase usually entails data gathering and assessments such as institutional assessments, training needs assessments, and process mapping at all levels within any organization to ensure a comprehensive bottom-up approach.  Such information and data are then analyzed with thoroughness and precision, using the best available methods in order to develop well-supported findings and conclusions, capable of withstanding the feedback from internal and external stakeholders.  In proposing and implementing solutions, the IdRC maintains a long-term integrative vision that includes state-of-the-art practices, and is responsive to the broader context in which client organizations operate.

Specific sector services include

Public Sector Reform	Change Management
Human Resources Management	Corporate Governance
Information and Knowledge Management	Business Planning and Business Process Management
Training and Capacity Building and Institutional Development

 

Natural Resources Management and Environment

In environmental challenges, the IdRC assists clients developing socially and economically viable solutions to environmental problems related to development activities and projects.  Our experts have advanced experience in ecological processes and knowledge of the regional and international regulations and trends.  Our approach is to working with clients and to developed tools and solutions to environmental problems in a participatory approach that involves all stakeholders

Specific sector services include:

- Environmental assessments and environmental compliance 

- Natural resource and environmental policies

- Integrated water resource management 

- Community-based natural resources management 

- Natural resource sector assessments 

- Civil society strengthening

- Environmental training

 

Research and Surveys

The IdRC has advanced expertise in the conduct of field surveys, household surveys, polling, and M&E evaluations using a variety of tools and methods.  One unique aspect that the IdRC possesses compared to typical firms specialized in polling and surveys is that the IdRC senior technical staff are a combination of engineers from various disciplines and social scientists.  Such diverse technical background has helped the IdRC excel in the conduct of household surveys relevant to infrastructure projects.  Its technical staff has worked on numerous household and polling activities related to infrastructure projects in water, transportation, power, and agriculture.  Those IdRC “soft-engineers” are complemented with experts in socioeconomics, anthropology, gender, and economic development. 
In the area of conducting field surveys and institutional assessments, the IdRC has been involved in a number of projects using different tools and approaches including survey questionnaires, focus group sessions, structured interviews and others. The IdRC team of experts provides experts with advanced skills in terms of:

 

The IdRC has a rigorous data quality and assurance program that it implements throughout the various stages of household surveys including the data collection, data screening, and data entry phases.  Furthermore, the IdRC experts have advanced expertise in the development of user-friendly databases with built-in coding systems based on the sampling frames, and able to check the logical consistency of the data through built-in redundancies for easy verification of the data entry. 

Specific sector services include

- Market Research Studies and Analyses

- Monitoring and Evaluation Studies and Surveys

- Polling and Household Surveys

- Satisfaction Surveys

- Public Perception Surveys

 

Transportation

The IdRC transportation team has a comprehensive range of expertise in transportation planning and economics. IdRC staff is experienced in the field of developing projections of future travel demand, the analysis of alternative transportation strategies to serve future needs and guide investment decisions, transportation policy analysis, and technical assistance in the development and implementation of transportation improvement programs.

 

Our services in transportation include:

- Transportation Modeling, Transportation Corridor Studies, and Congestion Management

- Highway Operation Assessments

- Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Planning and Design 

- Public Transportation/ Transit Systems 

- Traffic Impact Assessments

- Parking studies

 

Public Private Partnerships and Private Sector Participation

The IdRC has been heavily involved in several projects in the area of privatization, commercialization, public private partnerships, and private sector participation, especially in the area of water utilities and infrastructure.  It’s team of experts have advanced experience in PPP/PSP Opportunity Identification, PPP/PSP Project Analyses, PPP/PSP Project Due Diligence, PPP/PSP Finances, Regulatory Issues, Institutional Aspects, and Human Resources Issues.