New Delhi: The Nobel Peace Prize for the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations body dedicated to eliminating hunger and starvation from the earth, has brought the focus back on the global challenge of feeding every human being across the world. In the 21st century world, when every nation worth the salt aspires to arm itself with weapons and ammunitions, The Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 forces us to reorient ourselves and come together to save millions of people who die or starve across the world.
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, WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. Saddening indeed that India, despite being the world’s largest producer of grains, is the hungriest nation on the planet earth as well.
According to the WFP, more than 80 per cent of the world’s food insecure people live in the countries that are prone to natural shocks and are characterized by land and ecosystem degradation. The children who are malnourished in their first 1,000 days of life may suffer cognitive and physical impairment, while 218 million people were affected by natural disasters on average per year over the period 1994-2013.
WFP is the leading humanitarian organisation saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. As the international community has committed to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition by 2030, one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. Food and food-related assistance lie at the heart of the struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty.
In 2019, WFP assisted 97 million people – the largest number since 2012 – in 88 countries. On any given day, WFP has 5,600 trucks, 30 ships and nearly 100 planes on the move, delivering food and other assistance to those in most need. Every year, the WFP distributes more than 15 billion rations at an estimated average cost per ration of US$ 0.61. These numbers lie at the roots of WFP’s unparalleled reputation as an emergency responder, one that gets the job done quickly at scale in the most difficult environments.
WFP’s efforts focus on emergency assistance, relief and rehabilitation, development aid and special operations. Two-thirds of our work is in conflict-affected countries where people are three times more likely to be undernourished than those living in countries without conflict.
“With this year’s award, the (committee) wishes to turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announcing the award in Oslo. “The World Food Programme plays a key role in multilateral cooperation on making food security an instrument of peace.” The head of the organisation said his entire team deserved the award.
In 2019, 135 million people suffered from acute hunger, the highest number in many years. In total, WFP estimates that 690 million people suffer some form of hunger in the world today. The unprecedented effort involved nearly 130 countries and was key in ensuring that aid for the pandemic kept flowing in addition to assistance for other crises, like the drugs and vaccines needed to combat other diseases.
The award comes with a gold medal and a 10-milion krona (USD 1.1 million) cash prize that is dwarfed by the funding that WFP requires for its work. So far in 2020, the organisation has received almost USD 6.4 billion in cash or goods, with more than a third, over USD 2.7 billion, coming from the United States.
By Rajeev R
