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The WFD theme of the year was “Grow, nurture, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future ”.
Last Friday, October 16, the World Food Program (WFP) and the international community observed World Food Day (WFP) 2020, an extraordinary commemoration as well.
Just a week earlier, WFP had been named the winner of the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.
The occasion also marked the 75th anniversary of the founding of its parent, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This year’s evocative theme for the WFD was “Grow, nurture, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future ”.
In making the announcement on October 9, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it decided to award the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Program “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to improving the conditions of peace in the areas affected by conflict and by acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict ”.
President Berit Reiss-Andersen said that with this year’s award the committee wanted to “turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer or face the threat of hunger,” he told a press conference in Oslo.
I find it particularly moving what WFP Executive Director David Beasley said in reaction to the award:
“The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Program is a moving and moving recognition of the work of WFP staff who risk their lives every day to bring food and assistance to nearly 100 million children, women and men who they are hungry. worldwide. People whose lives are often brutally shattered by instability, insecurity and conflict.
“Each of the 690 million hungry people in the world today has the right to live without hunger. Today, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has put the spotlight on them … And now, a global pandemic with its brutal impact on economies and communities is pushing millions more to the brink of starvation …
“Food security, peace and stability go together. Without peace, we cannot achieve our global goal of zero hunger; and while there is hunger, we will never have a peaceful world ”.
And it is not an insignificant achievement.
The BBC reported that WFP led this year’s field of some 107 organizations and 211 individual nominees, noting that WFP is the 101st winner of an award now valued at SEK 10 million ($ 1.1 million; £ 875,000).
Headquartered in Rome, Italy, WFP was established in 1961 after the 1960 FAO conference. It is “the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger around the world.”
The second of the ’17 UN Sustainable Development Goals to transform our world ‘simply says: “Zero Hunger.”
In 1983, Ghana had special reason to be grateful to the Program and others for their critical support in the country’s time of need, particularly the fight against hunger.
That year has gone down in Ghana’s history as the year of calamities, in particular drought, forest fires and the consequent loss of food crops; as well as the expulsion by Nigeria of approximately one million undocumented Ghanaians.
But I think it is the famine that has left an indelible memory in the minds of most of the people who lived through the disasters of 1983.
During that period of acute food shortages, even staples such as bread and kenkey, made from cornmeal, disappeared.
And on the occasions when a kenkey maker did get some corn, it somehow got the word out quickly and quietly.
In some cases, prospective customers didn’t even wait for the kenkey to cook, instead buying it uncooked to cook themselves.
They couldn’t risk waiting for it to be cooked, in case other eager customers fooled them.
It was also the year some of us were introduced to legumes, such as lentils, which are known to be a very tasty and highly nutritious member of the bean family, generally associated with Indian cuisine.
We also discovered that wheat grain could be cooked and served with a stew similar to a rice and stew dish.
We came to know about lentils and wheat because they were among the food donations that regularly arrived in Ghana from friendly governments and humanitarian organizations such as WFP.
Furthermore, the assistance continues.
A day before the landmark Oslo news, WFP announced an extension of “support to the national social protection program in Ghana by providing cash transfers to 75,000 daily wage earners and small farmers”.
Ms Rukia Yacoub, WFP Representative and Country Director in Ghana, said: “Food security and nutrition are two areas that are often compromised during socio-economic recessions, such as the one occurring during this COVID-pandemic. 19 “.
The terrible days of 1983 gave some of us personal experiences of the wonderful, dedicated and vital work of WFP and other humanitarian and relief agencies.
No one should have to fight hunger, especially in a world of such momentous technological advances and in a world of such abundance of food elsewhere.
This recognition by the Nobel Committee is fair.
It will surely serve as an encouragement to the brave and selfless people involved in general humanitarian work and food charity around the world, which must often seem like thankless work.
However, by awarding the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, the Oslo Committee has undoubtedly assured WFP how much the world appreciates its dedication to defending the cause of the hungry.
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