The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday, 9 October, that it has awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP). Reacting to the prize, WFP chief David Beasley said that they were “deeply humbled” to receive the prize.
WFP further said that peace and ending hunger 'go hand in hand', according to AFP.
The WFP was awarded "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 committee said in a statement.
"With this year's award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger," Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said.
This is reportedly the 12th time the Peace Prize has gone to one of the agencies or personalities of the UN. The Nobel award comes with a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1,118,000).
Founded in 1961, the WFP helped 97 million people last year, distributing 15 billion rations to people in 88 countries, the AFP report said.
Last year’s Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in recognition of his efforts to end his country's long-running border conflict with Eritrea.
The prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and literature were awarded earlier this week. With Friday’s announcement, the announcement of the 2020 Nobel Prizes is almost at an end, leaving just the Economics prize, which will be announced on 12 October, wrapping things up.
(With inputs from AFP.)
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