U. N.’ s fight against world hunger lands Nobel Peace Prize

LONDON — The United Nations’ World Food Program was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of its efforts to fight hunger across the globe.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute paid tribute to the organization “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflictaffected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”

The prize committee said that 135 million people suffered from acute hunger in 2019, the most in years. The COVID19 crisis has increased that number.

“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,” Berit Reiss Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said at the announcement ceremony in Oslo. “In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Program has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts.”

The agency was founded in 1962, on the initiative of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and was quickly put to the test within months by a devastating earthquake in Iran. It now operates in more than 80 countries, including some of the world’s most dangerous — and deprived — wartorn areas, such as Yemen. Last year, it provided relief to 97 million people, the most in eight years, delivering food and working to build up community resilience.

ReissA ndersen said that, at a time when many nations are turning inward, awarding the prize to the WFP aimed to highlight the importance of collaboration in the face of crises such as the COVID19 pandemic, in which “we are all, to a certain extent, in the same boat.”

“Multilateral cooperation is absolutely necessary to combat global challenges, and multilateralism seems to have a lack of respect these days,” she said, in a veiled swipe at countries such as the U. S., which under the Trump administration has pulled out of international accords, expressed skepticism of such alliances as NATO and suspended funding to the World Health Organization.

The WFP expressed its “deepest thanks” for being chosen to receive what is arguably the most prestigious of the Nobel Prizes. “This is a powerful reminder to the world that peace and # Zero Hunger go hand in hand,” the organization tweeted.

The 101st Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded since 1901 was announced in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, at a much more scaleddown event than in years past because of the COVID19 pandemic. Only a handful of journalists and photographers were permitted inside the Nobel Institute because of public health rules.

The 318 candidates nominated for the peace prize this year included 211 individuals and 107 organizations, the fourthlargest pool in the award’s history.

Before the announcement, oddsmakers listed the World Health Organization, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg as favorites.