Finance. Economics. Institutions.
FEI Consulting, LLC is a Virginia-based multidisciplinary international development consulting firm established in 2008. FEI provides practical, results-oriented solutions to governments, development partners, public institutions, municipalities, utilities, and other organizations working to improve public services and strengthen institutions in emerging and developing countries.
FEI’s team has extensive international experience, including senior professionals with backgrounds at the World Bank, USAID, UNDP, and other international financial and development institutions. Our experts have worked in more than 70 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific.
Our work combines finance, economics, institutional development, infrastructure, and sector expertise to help clients address complex development challenges and translate strategies and policies into practical, sustainable results.
What We Do
FEI’s work is centered on three closely connected areas:
Strengthening Financial and Institutional Capacity
FEI helps governments, municipalities, utilities, and public institutions strengthen the financial and institutional foundations needed to deliver sustainable services.
Our support includes:
- Public and municipal financial management
- Utility financial sustainability and creditworthiness
- Revenue and cost-recovery improvement
- Financial modelling and investment planning
- Institutional and organizational assessments
- Governance and operational risk management
- Capacity building and organizational strengthening
- Integrated financial management information systems
- Strategic and performance planning
We focus on developing solutions that are appropriate to the client’s institutional, financial, regulatory, and operating environment.
Developing Sustainable Infrastructure and Utilities
FEI provides advisory services across the infrastructure project cycle, from identification and preparation through financing, procurement, implementation, oversight, and evaluation.
FEI has particular expertise in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and sustainable utilities, supporting governments, regulators, municipalities, and utility companies to improve service delivery, operational efficiency, financial performance, and long-term sustainability.
Our water and utility expertise includes:
- Water supply and sanitation
- Utility performance improvement and turnaround
- Non-revenue water reduction
- Sanitation and fecal sludge management
- Tariff and cost-recovery reform
- Utility financial management
- Investment and capital planning
- Water-sector regulation and governance
- Performance monitoring and benchmarking
- Climate-resilient and sustainable utilities
- Data systems and performance management
- Independent verification of results
FEI brings together technical, financial, institutional, and commercial expertise, recognizing that sustainable utility performance depends on more than infrastructure investment alone.
Supporting Policy, Regulatory and Institutional Reform
FEI assists central and sub-national governments and development partners in addressing policy, regulatory, governance, and institutional challenges that affect public service delivery.
Our work includes:
- Sector policy and strategy
- Regulatory framework development
- Institutional and organizational design
- Decentralization and local government development
- Public-sector performance management
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Public-private partnerships
- Private-sector participation
- Procurement and contract management
- Institutional capacity development
- Change management
We work closely with government counterparts and stakeholders to ensure that reforms are locally appropriate, implementable, and capable of being sustained beyond the life of a project.
Building Stronger Institutions
Sustainable development requires more than policies, infrastructure, and financing. It requires institutions with the systems, people, management practices, and incentives needed to implement and sustain reforms.
FEI designs and implements capacity-building programs tailored to the specific needs of government agencies, utilities, regulators, municipalities, and other public institutions.
Our approach combines:
Assessment → Capacity Development → Implementation Support → Performance Measurement → Institutionalization
Capacity development may include organizational assessments, training, management systems, operational procedures, financial systems, performance frameworks, change management, coaching, and practical implementation support.
Our objective is not simply to transfer knowledge, but to help institutions develop the capabilities and systems needed to independently sustain improved performance.
An Integrated Approach
FEI’s principal strength is the ability to bring together disciplines that are often treated separately.
A water utility’s financial problems may be linked to tariffs, NRW, billing, governance, management systems, or institutional incentives. An infrastructure project may require not only financing but also regulatory reform, institutional strengthening, procurement capacity, and improved operations. A PPP may require changes to the legal and regulatory framework as well as transaction structuring and capacity building.
FEI brings these perspectives together.
Our multidisciplinary teams combine expertise in finance, economics, infrastructure, WASH, utility management, institutional development, governance, PPPs, data and performance management, and information systems to develop practical solutions that address the underlying constraints rather than individual symptoms.
Our Approach
FEI’s approach is based on four principles:
Practical. We focus on solutions that can be implemented within the client’s institutional and financial realities.
Evidence-based. We use data, financial analysis, stakeholder consultation, and field-level evidence to inform recommendations and decisions.
Locally appropriate. International experience is adapted to the country’s institutions, regulatory environment, culture, market conditions, and capacity.
Sustainable. We focus on strengthening local institutions and systems so that improvements continue after the completion of external technical assistance.
Through this approach, FEI helps governments and development partners move from strategy to implementation, from investment to sustainable service delivery, and from capacity building to lasting institutional performance.