Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - November 24, 2003
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
The United Nations Foundation he established six years ago to distribute the $1 billion he pledged to U.N. causes has a new female-dominated board of directors - and Turner said it's about time.
"I've said for years and I'm really serious about it, I think men should be barred from holding public office for a hundred years," Turner said in a recent interview. "The men have been running the world for the last thousands of years and they've mucked it up something awful."
Turner said if women were in control "it would be a much more peaceful, prosperous, equitable world in a very short period of time."
"You'd have a huge shift away from military budgets and into education and health care," said the CNN founder. "And we're trying to set the example."
Last year, the foundation had five men and five women on its board.
When Gro Harlem Brundtland completed her term as director-general of the World Health Organization in July, the foundation's nominating committee invited her to join the board. Brundtland, Norway's first female prime minister, joined earlier this month.
"We cannot find another major organization in the world that has a majority of its board of directors as women," Turner said.
The foundation also is trying to set an example by arranging partnerships between the United Nations and outside organizations to tackle programs from eradicating poverty to helping fight AIDS, Turner said.
Turner, the U.N.'s largest individual benefactor, gave the foundation $500 million in five years. But then he cut his annual contribution in half - from $100 million to $50 million - because his fortune took a blow following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The second $500 million will be donated over 10 years.
Nonetheless, the United Nations Foundation is still spending at the same level - $104 million in grants this year - thanks to new money from governments, foundations, corporations and non-governmental organizations.
This year Rotary International joined the U.N. Foundation, the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in an innovative program to combat polio in Nigeria and Pakistan - two of the most affected countries.
Estee Lauder's MAC cosmetics subsidiary also is helping with an HIV /AIDS program aimed at young girls in Angola, South Africa and Mozambique.
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