The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday morning that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to the United Nation’s World Food Program.
In her announcement, NNC Chairwoman Berit Reiss-Anderson emphasized that “the need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever.” The WFP was awarded the prize “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”
The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization that addresses hunger and food insecurity, according to the committee. Reiss-Anderson noted that the world’s food-insecurity outlook has recently worsened but commended the WFP for its efforts in developing countries and war zones.
“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,” Reiss-Anderson said.
The chairwoman affirmed that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity concerns in many nations, but noted that the WFP “would have been a worthy recipient” even in the absence of the virus. “The pandemic shows that we are facing a major crisis where we all are, to a certain extent, in the same boat,” she said. “There’s no nation exempt from the virus. But it is also true that the virus hits communities and nations who have unstable infrastructure, have food instability, [are hit] much harder than it hits other countries. … Global problems will have to be solved by global efforts.”
One reporter at the announcement asked Reiss-Anderson whether she “feel[s] sure about the fact that this is probably a prize that will not be a provocation to anyone.”
“Addressing people that are starving, how can that be a provocation? … I hope not,” she said.
