Tutu Seeks Solutions to World's Persistent Problems

Sept. 25, 2007 — -- Former South African Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu is known internationally for his role in helping to end apartheid in his country. But now he has turned his attention to other global problems.

The respected leader is in New York to work with former President Bill Clinton on solutions for some of the world's most tenacious problems -- like poverty -- as part of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Clinton began the initiative in 2005 as a nonpartisan group, which focuses on bringing global leaders together to devise and implement solutions for the world's most pressing problems.

While in the city, Tutu sat down with "Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts to discuss his views on poverty, the upcoming U.S. presidential election and his hopes for Darfur.

Tutu said the disparity between the haves and have nots in the world today cannot continue, with poverty -- which Tutu called "so demeaning, so dehumanizing" -- being the biggest challenge to overcome.

"I mean if we go on in this kind of way and have a world where some have too much and others very little. It's a recipe for disaster," Tutu said.

Tutu said he believes there is a chance to make sure no one goes hungry.

"We've got the capacity to feed everybody. We've got a capacity to insure that everybody has got clean water. And yet, we don't let them have it, and people become sick," he said.

Roberts asked Tutu if he had a favorite candidate for the 2008 Unites States presidential election.

"I would say both Hillary Clinton and [Barack] Obama. It would be wonderful to have the first woman president. But it would be, I think in many ways, a far more powerful thing in the world, to have the first black president of the United States. You don't know what it would do to people of color in other parts of the world," he said.

"I think that both of them are people who seem to be going to bring new thinking, new ways of looking at old problems. There's an excitement, and I think they may be able to shift the direction in which your country has been going."