Combatting hunger on a global scale

The World Food Programme was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger, promote peace in conflict-affected areas, and prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

WFP was established in 1961 by the United Nations General Assembly and FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation and is funded by voluntary contributions from governments, organisations and private individuals.

WFP works in particular to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty and hunger. In 2019, more than 100 million people suffered from severe hunger, most of them as a result of war and conflict. The worldwide Corona pandemic did also swell the number of poor and hungry. In 2019, WFP provided emergency food assistance in 88 countries, but the organisation also worked in a long-term perspective to increase local production of food and to meet the nutritional needs of women and infants.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has previously awarded Peace Prizes for efforts that can prevent war and promote peace by combating hunger. The first one was presented in 1949 to FAO’s Director General John Boyd Orr, and the second in 1970 to Norman Ernest Borlaug, “the father of the Green Revolution”.