World Food Program wins Nobel Peace Prize
Honoured for efforts to combat hunger during time of the pandemic
NIAMEY, NIGER — The World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat hunger in regions facing conflict and hardship at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has driven millions more people to the brink of starvation.
The Rome-based United Nations agency has long specialized in getting assistance to some of the world’s most dangerous and precarious places, from airdropping food in South Sudan and Syria to creating an emergency delivery service that kept aid flowing even as pandemic restrictions grounded commercial flights.
In announcing the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it wished “to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger.”
The committee also said it hopes the prize will highlight the need to strengthen global solidarity and co-operation in an era of go-it-alone nationalism.
“We are sending a signal to every nation who raises objections to international co-operation,” committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said shortly after the award was announced. “We are sending a signal to this type of nationalism where the responsibility for global affairs is not being faced.
“Multilateral co-operation is absolutely necessary to combat global challenges. And multilateralism seems to have a lack of respect these days,” Reiss-Andersen said.
The award comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of several UN bodies, including the Human Rights Council and UNESCO, the cultural agency.
He has also repeatedly criticized the UN’s World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and his administration has said the United States will leave it next July.
In light of that American pullback, the choice of the World Food Program was particularly notable because the U.S. remains by far its biggest donor, the agency has been run by an American for nearly 40 years, and its current head — who was nominated by Trump’s administration — has been a rare recent example of U.S.-led internationalism.
The Nobel Committee said the problem of hunger has again become more acute in recent years, not least because the pandemic has added to the hardship already faced by millions of people around the world.
In total, WFP estimates 690 million people suffer some form of hunger in the world today.
UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres said he was delighted the award went to “the world’s first responder on the front lines of food insecurity.” It was the ninth award for the UN or one of its agencies.