PROFESSOR DEREK TRIBE AO OBE FTSE
and The ATSE Crawford Fund

It was towards the end of his career that Derek designed, constructed and launched the Crawford Fund and named it for his friend and mentor, Sir John Crawford. The Crawford Fund was dedicated to the pursuit of Sir John's ideals in the development of national and international programs of training and research to assist agricultural productivity throughout the world. Derek was the Crawford Fund's first Executive Director (1987-96), and in this role he wrote and lobbied passionately on the theme "Doing Well by Doing Good". Derek had a life-long commitment to international agricultural research and, particularly in later years, to the Crawford Fund - the Australian national support organisation for IAR.

Derek's connections with IAR commenced in the mid-1960s when he was a member of a UNDP/FAO mission (the East African Livestock Development Survey) that prepared a livestock development plan for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. During the next 25 years he undertook consultancies for the Rockefeller Foundation, UNESCO, the World Bank, FAO, IDRC, IAEA, the CGIAR and the Australian and overseas Governments. In 1972 he led the international task force established by the CGIAR to report on the advisability of establishing an International Livestock Centre in Africa, and from 1973-1980 he was a member of the Board of the new centre (the International Livestock Centre for Africa).

As the first full-time Executive Director of the International Development Program of the Australian Universities and Colleges (1980-86) (now IDP), Derek was a frequent visitor to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. He was, for example, a member of the Council of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (1983-86), and a member of the Grants Committee of the University of the South Pacific (from 1983). It was during this period that he, along with several other influential colleagues, encouraged and supported Sir John Crawford in his efforts to establish the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), a landmark in Australia's contribution to international agricultural research.

It was with this considerable background of experience and understanding of the importance of IAR to the betterment of agriculture, fisheries and forestry in developing countries that Derek based his vision of a national organization to promote and support Australia's contribution to IAR through AusAID and ACIAR. So in 1986 Derek proposed to the Council of ATSE that such an organization be established with the ultimate aim "to increase the amount and quality of research and development being conducted around the world, with particular emphasis of the needs of the less developed countries". With Derek's persuasive advocacy ATSE agreed and the Crawford Fund was established in 1987 with initial contributions from the Federal Government and private donors. As a first step Crawford established 'a training scheme to increase and improve the practical skills of scientists employed in agricultural development in the Third World. With efforts primarily focussed on Australia's neighbours in the Asia Pacific region'

DEREK TRIBE'S PUBLICATIONS IN IAR

• Feeding and Greening the World, Professor D E Tribe (1994)
• Doing Well by Doing Good, Professor D E Tribe (1991)
• Australian Agricultural Research: Some Policy Issues, Professor A G Lloyd, Mr M Harris and Professor D E Tribe (1990)
  

Derek Tribe's biography

The ATSE Derek Tribe Award

The ATSE Crawford Fund
1 Leonard Street
Parkville 3052
Victoria Australia
T: (03) 9347 8328
F: (03) 9347 3224
E: crawford@mira.net
W: www.crawfordfund.org