ISST is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that conducts research and action programmes to promote social justice and equity for the under-privileged, with a focus on women. ISST has been working on several inter-related areas of research including poverty and gender, health, local governance, forestry and environmental concerns. Current areas of research include:
- gender planning network
- gender, governance and habitat
- gender and work
ISST routinely conducts training of surveyors and field level workers where data is collected from communities through household surveys. ISST has also been involved in formulating a training programme for community workers on awareness and care of HIV/AIDS affected families.
One of the main activities of the ISST is the dissemination of information obtained from field studies to research scholars, planners, development agencies, policy implementers and decision-makers. This has been achieved through the publication of research reports, articles, books and presentations. These are available at the institute’s library and documentation centre. Some reports and publications can also be downloaded from the website.