World Food Programme: Know history and contribution of 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner

The World Food Programme (WFP) was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize on October 9 for its efforts to combat hunger and improving the conditions of conflict-ridden areas. Established in 1961, the Rome-based United Nations’ food-assistance branch remains the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security.

The WFP was created as an experiment to provide food assistance through the UN system. WFP was initially tasked with emergency aid and rehabilitation, however, in 1963, the aid group launched its first development programme for Nubians in Sudan. In 1965, WFP was enshrined as a full-fledged UN programme and was to last for “as long as multilateral food aid is found feasible and desirable”.

During the long famines in African’s Sahel region in the 1970s, WFP used camels, cars, and aircraft to provide food aid. It provided 2 million tons of food during the Ethiopian famine of 1984 and year later, released 1.5 million tons of food under Operation Lifeline Sudan. The 20-aircraft and three-sorties a day airdrop helped save hundreds of thousands of lives.

WFP is also the largest humanitarian organisation implementing school feeding programmes worldwide and in 2019, it provided school meals to more than 17.3 million children in 50 countries. The aid group says that it meets people’s food needs through cash-based transfers that allow the people they serve to choose and shop for their own food locally.

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Record assistance

The UN agency is governed by a 36-member Executive Board which works closely with its two Rome-based sister organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. It partners with over 1,000 national and international NGOs to provide food assistance and tackle the underlying causes of hunger. It has more than 17,000 staff worldwide and raised a record-breaking $8 billion in 2019.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted WFP’s role in multilateral cooperation on making food security an "instrument of peace." The committee said in a statement that it wishes to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger. The Nobel Committee has listed the agency’s work in the past few years, including the assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries, in 2019, who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.

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