UN’s World Food Programme wins 2020 Nobel peace prize

Addis Ababa, October 9, 2020 (FBC) – The World Food Programme (WFP) has won the 2020 Nobel peace prize for its efforts to combat hunger and to improve conditions for peace in conflict areas.

The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, revealed the 2020 laureate at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, where coronavirus restrictions drastically reduced the usual throng of reporters in attendance.

Reiss-Andersen said the committee gave the award to the WFP because it wanted to “turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger”. Hunger, she said, was used as a “weapon of war and conflict”.

The award was also a call to the international community to fund the UN agency adequately and to ensure people were not starving, she said.

She said the WFP would have been a worthy recipient of the prize without the coronavirus pandemic. But the virus had strengthened the reasons for giving it to the WFP including the need for “multilateralism” in a time of global criss.

“It’s a very important UN organisation. The UN plays a key role in upholding human she said, adding: “Food is one of our most basic needs”.

In its citation the committee praised the WFP for its “efforts for combating hunger” and its “contribution to creating peace in conflicted-affected areas”. It praised the UN agency 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, in a statement, wishes to emphasise that providing assistance to increase food security not only prevents hunger, but can also help to improve prospects for stability and peace.

The World Food Programme has taken the lead in combining humanitarian work with peace efforts through pioneering projects in South America, Africa and Asia, the statement from the Nobel Peace Prize committee indicated.

The World Food Programme was an active participant in the diplomatic process that culminated in May 2018 in the UN Security Council’s unanimous adoption of Resolution 2417, which for the first time explicitly addressed the link between conflict and hunger. The Security Council also underscored UN Member States’ obligation to help ensure that food assistance reaches those in need, and condemned the use of starvation as a method of warfare, the statement said.

This year, 318 nominees were known to be under consideration, 211 individuals and 107 organisations.