The Nobel Peace Prize at the United Nations World Food Programme

“Many thanks to the Nobel Committee for honoring the World Food Programme with the Nobel Peace Prize 2020. This is a powerful reminder to the world that peace and #famezero go hand in hand”: thus the World Food Programme, the leading humanitarian organization and agency of the United Nations, committed to saving and changing lives, providing food assistance in emergencies, working with communities to improve their nutrition and build resilience, with the goal of defeating hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition by 2030, announces from its Twitter profile the award of the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“The Coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a sharp increase in the number of hunger victims in the world. In countries such as Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burkina Faso, the combination of conflict and pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people living on the verge of hunger. In the face of the pandemic - as stated in the motivations of the Nobel Peace Prize at the World Food Programme - the WFP has shown an impressive capacity to intensify its efforts. As the organization itself said, until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos”.
As the president of the Nobel Committee, Norwegian lawyer Berit Reiss-Andersen, explains, “today international institutions such as the WFP are struggling with populism and nationalism that discredit cooperation agencies. It is difficult for them to receive financial support. Now, more than 20 years ago. They have no funds or support. The UN Food Programme operates in high-risk countries such as Syria, Yemen and North Korea. In 2019 the WFP has provided assistance to almost 100 million people in 88 countries victims of acute food insecurity and hunger. In 2015, the elimination of hunger was adopted as one of the UN’s sustainable development objectives. The WFP is the UN’s main tool for achieving this goal. In recent years, the situation has taken a negative turn. In 2019, 135 million people were suffering from acute hunger, the highest number for many years. Most of the increase was caused by war and armed conflicts”.