World Food Program gets Nobel Peace Prize

The World Food Program was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat a surge in global hunger amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has swept around the world with devastating impact.

The Nobel committee said that work by the organization, a U.N. agency, to address hunger had laid the foundations for peace in nations ravaged by war.

“In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Program has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts,” Berit ReissAndersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said as she announced the prize in Oslo. “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 many nations, particularly those at war, the combination of conflict and the pandemic has sharply increased the number of people on the brink of starvation. As the global fallout from the pandemic began this spring, the World Food Program estimated that the number of people experiencing life-threatening levels of food insecurity could more than double this year, to 265 million.

The World Food Program — the largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security internationally — last year provided assistance to nearly 100 million people in 88 countries.

The Nobel committee’s recognition of a U.N. agency comes as the United States under President Donald Trump has very publicly pulled back support for the global organization.

The World Food Program, established in 1961 after a proposal by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, has been a major behind-thescenes player helping people affected by some of the world’s most devastating humanitarian disasters, including famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s, wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Several U.N. and World Food Program leaders mentioned in their responses to the Nobel Peace Prize that the program depended on voluntary funding to be able to carry out its work.

The organization has long faced problems funding some of its largest operations.

“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.

The Nobel Peace Prize comes with a cash award of 10 million Swedish kroners, about $1.1 million.

Vladimir Voronin / Associated Press People pray during a rally Friday in the central square of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. President Sooronbai Jeenbekov declared a state of emergency starting Friday night.

Mohamed Sheikh Nor / Associated Press file The World Food Program, a United Nations agency, provided assistance to nearly 100 million people in 88 countries last year.