Observer Report
United Nations
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has been announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for the agency’s “efforts to prevent use of hunger as a weapon of war.”
“For its effort to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict affected areas and for acting as driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict,” announced the Nobel Prize Committee on Twitter.
The UN Agency was established at the “behest of former US President Dwight Eisenhower” in 1961 as an experiment to provide food aid through the UN system.
The WFP’s first test came in September 1962 after an earthquake in northern Iran killed more than 12,00 people. Later, in 1963, the agency launched its first development programme in Sudan and in 1965 it was included as a “fully-fledged UN programme” withing the agency to last “as long as multilateral food aid is found feasible and desirable”.
Today, the WFP is the “world’s largest humanitarian agency” which springs into action when during disasters and works “tirelessly to bolster nutrition and food security”.
Taking to Twitter, WFP thanked the Nobel Committee for “honouring” it with the prize, adding that it is “powerful reminder to the world that peace and zero hunger go hand-in-hand”.
The Nobel Committe, in a statement, said that it “wishes to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger” by awarding the agency with the prize.
