Nobel Peace Prize 2020: World Food Programme awarded for 'its efforts to combat hunger'

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 has been awarded to World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger and humanitarian contribution in conflict-affected areas. The United Nations’ food relief agency is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security. 

It received the coveted prize for “its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement that it wishes to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger. It highlighted WFP’s role in multilateral cooperation on making food security an instrument of peace. The Novel Committee further said that the UN agency has made a strong contribution towards mobilising the UN Member States to combat the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

“The work of the World Food Programme to the benefit of humankind is an endeavour that all the nations of the world should be able to endorse and support,” the committee noted.

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Extensive humanitarian work

The Nobel Committee listed the agency’s work in the past few years, including the assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries, in 2019, who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger. It admired WFP’s impressive ability to intensify its efforts in the face of the pandemic. The committee further said that the organisation contributes daily to advancing the fraternity of nations referred to in Alfred Nobel’s will.

In April, WFP had warned that the world could witness multiple famines of “biblical proportion” within a few months if nations don’t prepare and act immediately. Addressing a virtual session of the UN Security Council, top WFP official David Beasley said that the world is on the verge of a hunger pandemic due to coronavirus outbreak.

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