Oslo/New York, October 9 – The United Nations World Food Program has won this year’s coveted Nobel Peace Prize for its intensified efforts to provide life-saving food provisions to millions of people facing starvation under the pandemic.
The Nobel committee announced the winner for the prize in Oslo, saying that WFP, a UN agency, addressed hunger that also contributed to bring peace to countries devastated by conflicts.
“In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Program has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said. “The combination of violent conflict and the pandemic has led to a dramatic rise in the number of people living on the brink of starvation.”
“The world is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the World Food Program and other food assistance organizations do not receive the financial support they have requested.”
The Nobel committee said WFP recognized early in 2020 that the combination of conflict and the pandemic would result in more than doubling the number of people facing food insecurity to 265 million and immediately intensified programs to assist them.
WPF was established in 1961 and has been working in scores of developing countries affected by conflicts, natural disasters and famine.
In New York, the President of the General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, extended his heartfelt congratulations to the World Food Programme (WFP) for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This recognition of a United Nations agency and critical pillar of the multilateral system, which serves as a vital lifeline for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people, is well deserved.
In addition to providing food aid to people in nearly 90 countries, WFP is a key partner in the fight against COVID-19, transporting humanitarian staff and supplies, and helping with the procurement and delivery of such crucial items as personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and oxygen concentrators.
Recognizing the links between preventing conflict, ending wars and fighting hunger, the President applauds the women and men of WFP for their commitment to peace.
The UN has won seven Nobel Peace Prizes before 2020:
It was awarded to the UN peacekeeping forces in 1988; the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 1981; the International Labor Organization in 1969; UNICEF in 1965; UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskhjold in 1961; the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 1954 and Ralph Bunche, the US envoy to the UN, in 1950.
