The IID Fund

Structure

The Institute for International Development is a public company limited by guarantee. Its directors, members, senior staff and associates, while predominantly Australian, include outstanding expertise from many countries. The company has no shareholders or beneficial owners, its Board ensures that its funds are applied to activities consistent with its charter. As a public company the Institute is required to submit its accounts for audit each year.

Institute for International Development Fund

The Institute for International Development Fund obtains its capital from surpluses from its professional activities, inputs by its members and associates, and public and private donations. It applies its resources to development activities in such fields as:

Publications on development, culture and the arts;
Sponsorship of seminars, workshops and other forums;
Assisting exchanges of persons between countries;
Research;
Education;
Participation in government task forces;
Cultural awareness education;
Artist exchanges and integration programs;
Mentoring.

The actual activities chosen for investment reflect the different interests of its more active members. In scale of operation the Fund’s activities in research has been its largest activity, particularly in fields related to salinity and land and water degradation.

The Fund has been particularly active in the areas of publishing notably on different world views related to "sustainable agriculture".

It also has a strong mentoring program to encourage young professionals on projects IID is involved with.

Office Bearers

PRESIDENT

Mr Perry Gunner was a founder of the IID Development Fund. He has a history of significant contributions to Australian Agriculture. He is currently Chairman of ABB Grain Limited a recent merger he forged between the Australian Barley Board, which marketed Australia’s entire Barley crop internationally and AusBulk a large cooperative grain handling business of which he was a director. He made a significant contribution to the wine industry where he established Jacobs Creek as the world’s largest selling wine label before retiring as executive Chair of Orlando Wyndham in 1999, he still is a director of Simeon Mcguigan vineyards. More recently he was instrumental in establishing the largest pasture based dairy herd in the world through Coorong Dairies based on the rehabilitation of degraded sand hill country near the mouth of the Murray River. Perry has made an outstanding contribution to corporate life in Australia through his involvement in numerous public corporations and boards.

In addition to acting as President of the IID Development fund he has taken a direct role in the establishment of NyPa Australia Limited, The Land & Water Repair Company, and Wellington Property Development Pty Ltd and is an investor in QPod Systems Limited.

VICE PRESIDENT

Professor Lindsay Falvey was a Founder of IID and its Development Fund, and is currently Vice President. He is a leading international agricultural authority with an interest in ethics and religions. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences, he has served on more than 100 international missions to Asia, Africa and the Middle East on behalf of the Australian Government, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations and other organizations, has led 35 of those teams, and has been recognized for his outstanding work with awards from the governments of Thailand and Australia, including the Australian Centenary Medal for his contribution to the nation. Formerly managing director of Australia’s largest international environmental consulting firm and then Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture at the University of Melbourne, he now holds the Chair in Agriculture at the University of Melbourne and is the author of nine books and more than 100 articles. He has headed the Institute of Asian Languages and Societies, is on the international advisory board for the Asian Agri-History Foundation in India and the board of the National Thai Studies Centre at the Australian National University, and is a Director of the Global Ethics and Religion Forum.

He is currently visiting Fellow of Agricultural Ethics at Clare College Cambridge University UK.

Recent and Present Fund Projects

In 1996 the fund was associated with the publication of a book entitled Food Environment Education; Agricultural Education in Natural Resource Management, co-published with the Crawford Fund for International Agricultural Research. The book was written in part at the Bellagio Centre supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. The results can be found at http://www.landfood.unimelb.edu.au/dean/falveybk/index.html.

The Fund is involved in an applied research project adapting halophyte plants patented in the United States, to different salt affected areas in Australia. Four plants, named NyPa 'Wild Wheat'® NyPa Forage, NyPa Reclamation and NyPa Turf have been introduced to sites in Western Australia and South Australia for evaluation together with the South Australia Department of Primary Industries, Ag WA and the University of Melbourne.
Details can be seen at www.nypa.com.au.

www.nypa.com.au

IID members are involved in an international development research project for QPod, a New Zealand public company for some 15 years. The Company is developing a controlled atmosphere transportation system for perishable products. The system is designed to enable perishable products to be transported from the packing shed to supermarkets anywhere in the world. The project has received backing from USDA and NZRBC. Details can be seen at www.qpod.co.nz.

www.qpod.co.nz