admin The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the World Food Programme for its amazing contribution in helping to eradicate hunger from the world.
This World Food Programme is a United Nations agency which was founded in the year 1961 as an experiment after repeated requests from US President Dwight Eisenhower. Today, it is deemed as one of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations.
The WFP was honoured 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,” Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said on unveiling the winner in Oslo.
The WFP managed to feed 97 million people in the past one year. The first mission of the WFP was in the year 1962, when an earthquake had hit Northern Iran. It had just been a few months that the WFP had started its operations but its contribution in helping the survivors and victims of the earthquake is lauded till date. The second operation was started in Sudan to provide meals in school to underprivileged students.
By the year 1965, it came to be highly recognised and it had proven its worth and became a full-fledged UN agency.
The WFP’s American executive director David Beasly said in a statement:
“This is the first time in my life I’ve been speechless! This is unbelievable. It’s because of the WFP family. They’re out there in the most difficult, complex places in the world, whether it’s war, conflict, climate extremes.”
The agency is funded by voluntary donations and last year managed to collect $8 billion which is record breaking in itself.
The WFP this year has warned that since the pandemic the number of people starving has increased manifold and that its impact will be felt in the years to come. With the Nobel Peace Prize they expect to serve more and more people in the world. The WFP takes pride in being one of the leading humanitarian organisations and says even after working this hard and getting food to people by helicopters, horses and camels, there are 690 people who go to bed hungry every night. They believe that the war with hunger is yet to be won.
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