Nobel Peace Prize: UN World Food Program wins for efforts to fight hunger

The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the WFP had acted “as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”

WFP, the 101st winner of an award now worth SEK 10 million ($ 1.1 million; £ 873,000), said it was “deeply honored”.

This year about 107 organizations and 211 people were nominated.

WFP said on Twitter: “This is in recognition of the work of WFP staff who risk their lives every day to bring food and assistance to more than 100 million hungry children, women and men around the world.”

WFP Director David Beasley told reporters he was in shock.

“This is amazing. Talk about the most exciting time of your life,” he said.

“It is for the WFP family. They are in the most complex and difficult places in the world, where there are wars, conflicts, climatic extremes. It doesn’t matter. They are there and they deserve this award.”

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The World Health Organization and climate activist Greta Thunberg were among the favorites to win this year.

Under the rules of the Nobel Foundation, lists of nominations cannot be published for 50 years, and the organization says any speculation before the announcement is “pure conjecture.”

What else did the Nobel Committee say?

President Berit Reiss-Andersen said that with this year’s award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wanted to “turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer or face the threat of hunger.”

“The World Food Program plays a key role in multilateral cooperation to make food security an instrument of peace,” he told a press conference in Oslo.

The committee said that Covid-19 had further increased the importance of the group.

“The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a sharp increase in the number of world hunger victims,” ​​he wrote in a statement.

“In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Program has shown an impressive ability to scale up its efforts.”

Earlier this year, the WFP warned that the world was at risk of widespread famines “of biblical proportions” as a result of the pandemic.

What does WFP do?

The UN agency delivers food assistance to countries around the world. The group says it provided assistance to about 100 million people in 88 countries last year who were victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.

The agency was established in 1961, following calls by former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a “workable plan” to be devised to provide food aid through the UN system.

Months after its creation, it responded to a major earthquake in northern Iran, delivering wheat, sugar and tea to the survivors.

Since then, it has continued to respond to natural disasters and conflicts around the world, including:

Yemen: WFP says its emergency response in conflict-torn Yemen is the largest in the world. Its goal is to help some 13 million people, but it has faced a number of challenges. He has accused local leaders of diverting food from vulnerable people. This year it has warned that it faces a significant funding shortage, and some donors have stopped aid for fear that deliveries will be blocked.

Afghanistan: WFP says its “overall goal” is to help the country fight hunger in a way that contributes to peace. But he says decades of “complex and protracted conflict” have created difficulties. There have been cases where the group suspended deliveries of food aid to certain areas due to the attacks.

South Sudan: The agency has been supporting people in both conflict and famine situations. In addition to a civil war that has lasted for years, he says that a collapsing economy, reduced crop production and dependence on imports mean that many cannot access enough nutritious food. In 2014, one of his staff members was kidnapped at gunpoint.

In an internal WFP survey last year, at least 28 employees reported experiencing rape or sexual assault while working at the agency. More than 640 other people said they had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment. Beasley told the Associated Press news agency at the time that he was “making tough decisions to bring about change.”

Who won the Nobel Peace Prize before?

Last year was for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose peace deal with Eritrea ended a 20-year military stalemate following the 1998-2000 border war.

Former US President Barack Obama won the award in 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among peoples.”

Other notable winners include former US President Jimmy Carter (2002); early childhood education activist Malala Yousafzai (shared in 2014); the European Union (2012); the United Nations and its secretary general at the time, Kofi Annan, (shared in 2001); and Mother Teresa (1979).

What is the background?

The Nobel Prize is one of the most important prizes in the world.

It was started according to the will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, and the first prize was awarded in 1901.

Nobel Prizes are awarded in various categories to people “who have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” in the past 12 months.

The recipient of each Nobel Prize receives three things:

• A Nobel diploma, each of which is a unique work of art.
• A Nobel medal
• A cash prize, which is divided among the winners when there is more than one. They have to give a conference to receive the money.

There have been some years in which the prize has not been awarded, especially during the two world wars.

The rules of the Nobel Foundation state that if no one deserves the award in a particular category, it is not awarded and the award money is kept for the following year.