UN World Food Programme wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 has been awarded to the World Food Programme 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 World Food Programme, or WFP, is the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security.

The WFP is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations which was founded in 1961 following the Food and Agriculture Organization Conference in 1960.

In 2019, the WFP helped some 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food and insecurity and hunger.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the novel coronavirus pandemic has worsened the hunger crisis around the world and called on the international community to fund the UN agency and other aid organizations to ensure people were not starving.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, said: "In countries such as Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burkina Faso, 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.

"In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts. As the organization itself has stated, 'Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos'."

Reiss-Andersen also called for an end to war and armed conflict which she said can cause food insecurity and hunger.

"The link between hunger and armed conflict is a vicious circle: war and conflict can cause food insecurity and hunger, just as hunger and food insecurity can cause latent conflicts to flare up and trigger the use of violence. We will never achieve the goal of zero hunger unless we also put an end to war and armed conflict," she said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee stressed that providing assistance to increase food security not only prevents hungry but also improves prospects for stability and peace.

"The World Food Programme plays a key role in multilateral cooperation on making food security an instrument of peace, and has made a strong contribution towards mobilizing UN member states to combat the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict," Reiss-Andersen said.