This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the World Food Programme(WFP) for its “efforts to combat hunger” and its “contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas.”
“The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world. In the face of the pandemic, 2020 Nobel Prize laureate the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts,” the Nobel Committee said.
Reiss-Andersen said the committee gave the award to the WFP because it wanted to “turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger”. Hunger, she said, was used as a “weapon of war and conflict”.
There were 318 candidates, 211 individuals, and 107 organisations nominated this year for the coveted prize. While the Norwegian Nobel Committee maintains absolute secrecy about whom it favours for arguably the world’s most prestigious prize, that has never stopped speculation ahead of the announcement.
Amongst those speculated to be nominated included US President Donald Trump, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, and the World Health Organization.
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 honoured breakthroughs in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes.
The chemistry prize on Wednesday went to scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool.
The literature prize was awarded to the 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.