Schoolchildren from Ankileisoke Primary School eat lunch offered by the World Food Programme’s Under-nutrition Prevention Programme, in the Amboasary-South district of southern Madagascar.Rijasolo / AFP via Getty Images fileOct. 9, 2020, 10:03 AM WAT / Updated Oct. 9, 2020, 10:13 AM WATBy Adela Suliman
The United Nations World Food Programme was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat hunger and food insecurity around the globe.
The body was rewarded 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,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Nobel Committee.
“In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts,” she added.
The Rome-based organization is the world’s largest humanitarian group addressing hunger and promoting food security. In 2019, it provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.
The prize was announced virtually from Oslo, Norway, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The United Nations is no stranger to the Peace Prize.
The global body last won the award in 2001 along with then Secretary-General Kofi Annan “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.” The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces won in 1998 and the U.N.’s Refugee agency (UNHCR) won in 1981 and Children’s fund UNICEF in 1965.
The deadline for nominations was Feb. 1, which means that those on the front lines of fighting Covid-19 — which was only declared a pandemic in March — were not likely to be contenders.
Last year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali claimed the prize for his work to promote reconciliation, solidarity and social justice in the east African country and for signing a major peace deal with neighbor Eritrea after decades of fighting.
Previous winners include educational activist Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban, South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela for his work to end apartheid and Martin Luther King Jr. for his non-violent campaign against racism.
Organizations are also eligible and the award has previously gone to the United Nations and humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Four former U.S. Presidents have claimed the prize.
Former President Barack Obama in 2009 for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy, Jimmy Carter in 2002 for finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts after he left office. While Theodore Roosevelt scooped the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919 after World War I.
The award has faced some controversy in the past.
Along with enormous prestige and immediate global attention, the prize comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash award and a gold medal to be handed out at a scaled-down ceremony in Oslo, on Dec. 10, the anniversary of industrialist Alfred Nobel’s death.
The final Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday.
NBC NEWS