The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme. The citation said the humanitarian organization, a part of the United Nations, is receiving 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 announcement was made by Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who said in this time of pandemic "multilateral cooperation is more important than ever."
The WFP is active in 83 nations . In an interview with NPR earlier this year, the WFP's executive director, David Beasley, said the organization's task has grown enormously as a result of the global pandemic.
"Before COVID I was giving speeches that 2020 was going to be the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII," Beasley said. "135 million people pre-COVID on the brink of starvation. Because of COVID we're looking at an additional 130 million people knocking on the door of starvation."
The five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee chooses the winner of the Peace Prize. Committee members are named to six-year terms by the Norwegian Storting, or parliament.
The committee considered 318 candidates for the 2020 prize, the fourth largest number ever. Of the nominations, 211 were individuals and 108 were organizations.
The 2020 Nobel Prizes bring a cash award of 10 million Swedish krona ($1.12 million).
As is customary, the announcement was made in the Grand Hall of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
