Arijanto "Arie" Istandar is a Civil and Water Resources Engineer with over 25 years of experience managing and leading urban and rural Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) service delivery and sector reform, water infrastructure resilience, and environmental/natural resources management.
He is currently the Associate Director for RTI’s Water team, where he provides technical leadership and oversight, coordinates cross-organization water resources and service delivery activities, and supports new business.
Mr. Istandar supports the technical delivery of USAID’s Effective Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services (E-WASH) program in Nigeria, which works to improve urban WASH services provision and enable sector reform by strengthening the governance financial, and technical viability of selected water utilities and local governments. The program focuses on professional management and a commercial orientation for water utilities, enhancing the enabling framework, and building national and regional advocacy for water and sanitation sector reform.
Mr. Istandar has substantial experience in organizational and management capacity building in the WASH sector. He has supported and managed WASH programs in Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria), South and Southeast Asia (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), and in the U.S. Previously, he served as a Chief of Party and Team Leader managing urban water and sanitation service delivery improvements, for which he developed and leveraged pan-Asian networking, partnerships and collaboration.
He has held field- and home office-based positions managing USAID and World Bank-sponsored projects on water sector institutional reform, urban environmental management, and air quality monitoring.
As a technical consultant, he helped U.S. municipalities and private-sector clients manage groundwater resources, remediate hazardous waste, and enhance water and wastewater treatment operations. As a private entrepreneur, he has also engaged in Indonesia's green infrastructure product development, manufacturing, and marketing. Throughout his career, Mr. Istandar has collaborated with different tiers of host country government partners, business leaders, civil society, and donor agencies to facilitate locally-led development and execution of strategic plans, policy reforms and regulatory frameworks, peer-to-peer twinning, and capacity building.
Mr. Istandar holds a certification as a Pervious Concrete Technician from the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and a Green Associate from the Green Building Council Indonesia. He is also a member of the International Water Association and currently serves as a board member of WaterLinks, an NGO focusing on water utility partnerships in Asia.
