World Food Program wins top honor as hunger surges
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 air- dropping 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 cooperation in an era of go-it-alone nationalism.
“We are sending a signal to every nation who raises objections to international cooperation,” committee chair Berit ReissAndersen 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 cooperation 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 President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of
several U.N. bodies, including the Human Rights Council and UNESCO, the cultural agency. 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.
David Beasley, WFP’s executive director, said the award rightly goes to his entire team. “I know I’m not deserving of an award like this — but all the men and women around the world in the World Food Program and our partners who put their lives on the line every day to help those in need, that is inspiring and encouraging,” Beasley said by phone from Niger.