United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is winner of 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. It was awarded prize by the Nobel Committee in Norway on Friday. The Nobel judges spoke about why they gave award to the WFP. They said the WFP got the award, "for its efforts to combat hunger" and "for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas". They said another reason was that the WFP acted, "as driving force to prevent use of hunger as weapon of war and conflict". The WFP tweeted: "We are deeply humbled to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This is incredible recognition of dedication of the WFP family, working to end hunger every day in 80-plus countries."
World Food Programme is largest humanitarian organization in world. Last year, it gave help to more than 97 million people in 88 countries. Its workers and volunteers often work in extremely dangerous conditions. These can be in remote, hard-to-access areas of the world. Over two-thirds of its work is in conflict-affected countries. People in war zones are three times more likely to be undernourished than those in countries without conflict. COVID-19 pandemic has added to global food insecurity. The WFP said: "There will likely be 265 million starving people within year." The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, called WFP "the world's first responder on frontlines of food insecurity".
