The World Food Programme has won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger, and for its fight for peace in conflict-ridden places.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee headed by Berit Reiss-Andersen in Oslo announced the win on Friday.
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security.
The Nobel Prize was awarded to the WFP for their many programs involving eradicating hunger.
In 2019, the WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.
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 organisation itself has stated, “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.”
There have been much speculation about who would win the peace prize this year -- with major names like climate activist from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, who made headlines around the world.
And the most visible opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny who was just recently released from a hospital where he was taken care of for 32 days, after he was poisoned.
Just a while ago, U.S. President Donald Trump was nominated for his "landmark" UAE-Israel deal, which which the White House deemed as "hard-earned and well-deserved honour."
Of the 318 candidates — 211 individuals and 107 organizations. Select groups, including national lawmakers, heads of states and some international institutions can make these nominations.
Unfortunately, frontline warriors of COVID-19 came to limelight only after the virus was declared a pandemic in March, and because the deadline for nominations is in early February, they will not be contenders.
(With inputs from AP)