Nobel Peace Prize 2020 Awarded to World Food Progamme for Efforts to Combat Hunger in Conflict Areas

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace in conflict areas, the Nobel committee said.

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,” it said.

The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, revealed the 2020 laureate or laureates at 2:30pm IST at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, where coronavirus restrictions drastically reduced the usual throng of reporters in attendance.

The Nobel Committee said that the coronavirus pandemic has added to the hunger faced by millions of people around the world and called on governments to ensure that WFP and other aid organizations receive the financial support necessary to feed them.

There was no shortage of causes or candidates on this year’s list, with 211 individuals and 107 organizations nominated ahead of the February 1 deadline. However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee maintains absolute secrecy about whom it favors for arguably the world’s most prestigious prize.

The award comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash prize and a gold medal to be handed out at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death. This year’s ceremony will be scaled down due to the pandemic.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize for physiology and medicine for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus. Tuesday’s prize for physics honored breakthroughs in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday went to scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool. The literature prize was awarded to American poet Louise Glück on Thursday for her “candid and uncompromising” work.

Still to come next week is the prize for outstanding work in the field of economics.

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