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The UN’s Rome-based World Food Programme has been awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger and to improve conditions for peace in conflict areas.
The award was announced today at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, which due to coronavirus restrictions saw a drastically reduced attendance and media presence.
This year's award goes to a food aid organisation after chef Jose Andres was nominated last year for his work with World Central Kitchen.
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security. In 2019, the WFP provided assistance in 88 countries to almost 100 million people who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger
Photo: ©Nobel Media. Ill. Niklas Elmehed
In 2015, eradicating hunger was adopted as one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The WFP is the UN’s primary instrument for realising this goal. In recent years, the situation has taken a negative turn. In 2019, 135 million people suffered from acute hunger, the highest number in many years. Most of the increase was caused by war and armed conflict.
The prize is a major recognition of the body’s work and will come with a purse of 10m kronor (€920,000), along with the famed gold medal at a socially distant ceremony in Oslo on December 10th.
