OSLO: The UN's World Food Programme, which offers succour and sustenance to people around the world who find themselves in dire straits due to conflict, climate crises or Covid-19, was on Friday awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 for its "efforts to combat hunger".
The award to an organisation, instead of an individual like teen environment crusader Greta Thunberg or New Zealand Prime Minister JacindaArdern who were believed to be among the 318 nominees, seems to underscore the importance of collective action to tackle growing natural and human threats to food security and sustainable livelihoods around the world, especially in the underdeveloped countries of the Global South.
Last year, the award was conferred to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose peace deal with Eritrea ended a 20-year military stalemate following their 1998-2000 border war.
The Rome-headquartered WFP, which is in the forefront of helping the undernourished in various conflict and disaster areas, be it refugees from strife-torn Yemen or Syria, the Rohingyas in their Bangladesh camps, the drought-hit in Africa's Sahel or the pandemic-affected around the world, is the latest in the UN family to win the prestigious prize and the first since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007).
The coronavirus pandemic has also lead the organisation to scale up its assistance efforts, and as per WFP US, it is providing life-saving meals to 138 million of the world's most vulnerable people in more than 80 countries this year. It is also a significant contributor in achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals on tackling hunger and starvation around the world. (IANS)
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