{"id":267771,"date":"2020-10-09T13:09:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T12:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=267771"},"modified":"2020-10-09T13:10:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T12:10:18","slug":"world-food-programme-wins-nobel-peace-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=267771","title":{"rendered":"World Food Programme wins Nobel Peace Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"World<\/p>\n

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme on Friday for feeding millions of people from Yemen to North Korea, with the coronavirus pandemic pushing millions more into hunger.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The WFP was \u201ca driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict\u201d, Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said on unveiling the winner in Oslo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a powerful reminder to the world that peace and #ZeroHunger go hand-in-hand,\u201d the Rome-based organisation said on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1961, the UN body helped 97 million people last year, distributing 15 billion rations to people in 88 countries.<\/p>\n

Whether delivering food by helicopter or on the back of an elephant or a camel, the WFP prides itself on being \u201cthe leading humanitarian organisation\u201d in a world where, by its own estimates, some 690 million people \u2014 one in 11 \u2014 go to bed on an empty stomach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this year\u2019s award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger,\u201d Reiss-Andersen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe link between hunger and armed conflict is a vicious circle: war and conflict can cause food insecurity and hunger, just as hunger and food insecurity can cause latent conflicts to flare up and trigger the use of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never achieve the goal of zero hunger unless we also put an end to war and armed conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

WFP executive director David Beasley said the agency was \u201cdeeply humbled\u201d by winning the prize, adding it had rendered him \u201cspeechless\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Central African Republic \u2014 the worst country for food insecurity according to the WFP \u2014 agency spokesman Vigno Hounkanli said the prize was a \u201crecognition for all the work the WFP does in the most difficult crises.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams go to remote areas sometimes risking their lives\u2026 colleagues have left their lives because they want to save others,\u201d Hounkanli said, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s not office work, it\u2019s on the ground, concretely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Yemen worries \u2013<\/h2>\n

Despite making progress over the past three decades, the UN\u2019s goal to eradicate hunger by 2030 appears out of reach if current trends continue, according to experts.<\/p>\n

Women and children are generally most at risk.<\/p>\n

War can be caused by hunger, but hunger is also a consequence of war, with people living in areas of conflict three times more likely to be undernourished than those living in countries at peace, the WFP says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no two ways about it \u2014 we can\u2019t end hunger unless we put an end to conflict,\u201d Beasley said in September.<\/p>\n

Yemen, which is living through what the UN has described as the \u201clargest humanitarian crisis in the world\u201d, is a stark example.<\/p>\n

Both the UN and aid agencies have repeatedly raised the alarm over the disastrous consequences of the conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced three million and pushed the country to the brink of famine.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of Yemen\u2019s 30 million people do not know where their next meal will come from, WFP figures show.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2018Biblical proportions\u2019 \u2013<\/h2>\n

The outlook for the world has grown bleaker this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to earnings losses, made food more expensive and disrupted supply chains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world,\u201d the Nobel committee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn countries such as Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burkina Faso, the combination of violent conflict and the pandemic has led to a dramatic rise in the number of people living on the brink of starvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, Beasley raised the alarm, saying: \u201cWe could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The global recession caused by the virus risks pushing an additional 83 to 132 million people into hunger, the UN said in a report in mid-July.<\/p>\n

This is the 12th time the Peace Prize has gone to the UN, one of its agencies or personalities \u2014 more than any other laureate.<\/p>\n

Amid rising geopolitical tensions and nationalistic trends including US President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d policies, Reiss-Andersen stressed \u201cthe need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

The award consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (950,000 euros, $1.1 million).<\/p>\n

[AFP]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme on Friday for feeding millions of people from Yemen to North Korea, with the coronavirus pandemic pushing millions more into hunger. The WFP was \u201ca driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict\u201d, Nobel committee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[754,13424,765,767],"class_list":["post-267771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-hunger","tag-nobel-prize","tag-wfp","tag-yemen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=267771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/266818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}