Nobel Peace Prize 2020: World Food Programme and the Fight Against Hunger

This note covers the Nobel Peace Prize 2020: why it went to the World Food Programme, what the organisation does, how hunger and conflict feed each other, how the WFP's work developed over the decades, why the award matters and a quick-facts summary for exams.

What was the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 awarded for?

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 to the World Food Programme (WFP) "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict".

In plain words, the committee honoured an organisation, not a person, for three linked things: feeding hungry people, using food aid to calm conflict zones, and pushing the world to stop using starvation as a tactic in war.

The prize's full name is the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the five original prizes created in Alfred Nobel's will.

This was unusual in one sense: the WFP is a United Nations agency, not an individual campaigner, yet the committee treated its daily humanitarian work as a form of peacemaking in itself. The committee said the WFP's efforts contribute to advancing the fraternity of nations named in Nobel's will.

Who is the laureate?

World Food Programme

The World Food Programme was founded in 1961 by the United Nations General Assembly together with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. At the time of the award it was based within the UN system and was described as the world's largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and food security.

The WFP received the whole prize (a full share), worth 10,000,000 Swedish kronor, announced on 9 October 2020. Unlike most Peace Prizes given to a person, this one went entirely to an institution built from decades of UN-coordinated food relief work.

The WFP's contribution, as described by the committee, was its role as the UN's primary instrument for realising the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger, its direct emergency work in 88 countries, and its part in pushing the UN Security Council to formally condemn hunger as a weapon of war.

The organisation is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from governments, other organisations and private individuals rather than compulsory UN dues, which means its yearly scale of work depends on how much support it actually receives.

At the award ceremony on 10 December 2021, delayed by a year, the committee's chair Berit Reiss-Andersen noted that the WFP's director David Beasley was finally able to travel to Oslo to deliver the Nobel lecture on the organisation's behalf, underlining that the prize was accepted by a representative of the institution rather than by a single named individual.

What problem does the World Food Programme address?

The background to this prize is a simple but stubborn problem: millions of people around the world do not get enough food to live healthily, and this shortage is often caused, or made far worse, by war and armed conflict.

The UN adopted the goal of ending hunger among its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, and the WFP became the UN's primary instrument for reaching that goal, working alongside the FAO and national governments.

Despite this goal, the situation worsened in the years before the award. In 2019, around 135 million people were living with acute hunger, the highest level in many years, and most of this increase was caused by war and armed conflict.

The coronavirus pandemic then added a second shock. The press release named countries where violent conflict combined with the pandemic to push huge numbers of people towards starvation: Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Burkina Faso.

In her award ceremony speech, Berit Reiss-Andersen added that there was "greater need than ever" for the WFP's work, pointing also to the ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Ethiopia and Afghanistan among other conflict-torn areas of the world.

The committee framed this as a moment when the world risked a hunger crisis of "inconceivable proportions" without stronger financial support for food-assistance organisations, tying the honour directly to an appeal for continued donations rather than treating it as a purely symbolic gesture.

How does the World Food Programme fight hunger?

At its simplest, the WFP delivers emergency food assistance to people caught in crises, while also working on longer-term food security. In 2019 alone it reached nearly 100 million people across 88 countries dealing with acute food insecurity and hunger.

The organisation is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from governments, other organisations and private individuals, rather than compulsory UN dues. This means its scale of operation depends directly on how much support it receives each year, and shortfalls in funding can leave large populations without assistance.

Beyond emergency relief, the WFP also works on a longer horizon: helping communities grow more food locally and meeting the nutritional needs of women and infants, so that food security becomes sustainable rather than a one-off rescue.

During the pandemic, the committee noted that the WFP showed an "impressive ability to intensify its efforts" to meet the sudden rise in need, scaling up operations even as travel and logistics became harder worldwide.

The World Food Programme itself put the pandemic-era stakes starkly, as quoted by the committee: "Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos."

At the award ceremony, Berit Reiss-Andersen placed this work within a wider moral frame, saying that food creates community and feeds more than the body, and that most religions command a moral duty to share food, with food often forming part of religious rituals. She argued that ensuring all people are fed is a universal duty, which the WFP carries out on behalf of the United Nations and the international community.

How does the World Food Programme link hunger with peace?

The committee's citation rests on a specific idea: hunger and conflict feed each other in a cycle.

Armed conflict can trigger food insecurity and hunger, which in turn can cause latent conflicts to flare up into violence. Breaking this cycle at either end, the committee argued, helps both food security and peace.

Berit Reiss-Andersen expressed the same idea in her ceremony speech: access to food and fair distribution of resources act as a defence against social distress and conflict, while starvation can be both an effect of war and, at times, a deliberate weapon used to starve out an enemy.

The WFP took an active part in the talks that resulted, in May 2018, in the UN Security Council unanimously adopting Resolution 2417.

This resolution explicitly addressed the link between conflict and hunger for the first time, and it also underscored that UN member states must help ensure food assistance reaches people in need, while condemning the practice of using starvation as a tactic of war.

The table below sums up the two directions of this cycle as described by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The committee described the WFP as "a modern version of the peace congresses" that the Nobel Peace Prize was originally meant to support, linking its everyday relief work to Alfred Nobel's own vision of fraternity between nations.

How did the work develop?

The WFP's prize did not come out of nowhere. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has a history of recognising anti-hunger work, and the WFP's own history runs across six decades, as shown in the timeline below.

This sequence shows that the 2020 award built on a long-running theme at the Nobel Committee: treating food security as a route to peace, not merely a charitable act.

The gap between the 1970 prize to Norman Ernest Borlaug and the 2020 prize to the WFP spans fifty years, during which the committee did not award the prize again for hunger-related work until the problem of conflict-driven famine became acute enough, to demand fresh global attention.

Why does it matter?

The award drew global attention to a crisis that was escalating even before it was announced.

By giving the prize to an operational agency rather than a diplomat or activist, the committee highlighted that feeding people can itself be a form of conflict prevention, not just a response to conflict already under way.

The prize also carried a practical message about funding: the committee warned that the world risked a hunger crisis of "inconceivable proportions" if the WFP and similar organisations did not receive the financial support they requested. This tied the symbolic honour directly to a call for continued and increased donations.

An open question the sources leave unresolved is whether recognition alone can reverse the underlying trend: the press release itself notes that global hunger numbers were rising sharply in 2019, driven mainly by conflict, even as goals like the SDGs aimed at eliminating hunger altogether.

The committee's own view was that zero hunger cannot be reached without also ending war and armed conflict, which places a political demand alongside the humanitarian one: donors and governments are urged not only to fund food aid but also to work towards ending the conflicts that create the need for it in the first place.

In her ceremony speech, Berit Reiss-Andersen reinforced this by naming fresh conflicts, in Yemen, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, still generating hunger a year after the prize was announced, suggesting that the underlying problem the committee highlighted in 2020 had not been resolved by the award itself.

How does this connect to what you study?

Students who study the United Nations, its agencies, and global goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals in civics or geography will recognise the WFP as a concrete example of a UN body working on Goal 2: Zero Hunger.

The 2018 Security Council Resolution 2417 is also a useful case of international law responding to a humanitarian problem.

The idea that hunger and conflict reinforce each other is a useful model for understanding many real-world situations discussed in current-affairs or general-studies preparation, where economic deprivation, war and political instability are often shown as interconnected rather than separate problems.

Draw two circles labelled "Conflict" and "Hunger" connected by two arrows, one from Conflict to Hunger labelled "disrupts farming and aid", and one from Hunger to Conflict labelled "triggers unrest".

Add a third box labelled "WFP" with arrows pointing into both circles, showing food assistance and peace-building projects breaking the cycle.

What did the Nobel Committee say in the award ceremony speech?

The award ceremony for the 2020 Peace Prize was held on 10 December 2021 in Oslo, delayed from the usual December 2020 date. The presentation speech was given by Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

She opened by describing food as humanity's most basic need, one that also builds community and gives pleasure, and noted that most religions treat sharing food as a moral duty, often woven into religious rituals. On this basis, she argued that ensuring everyone is fed is a universal duty, which the WFP carries out on behalf of the UN and the wider international community.

Reiss-Andersen then repeated the prize's citation in full during the ceremony, confirming that it covered combating hunger, bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas, and acting as a driving force against the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

She explained the hunger-conflict relationship from both directions: fair access to food and resources defends against social distress and conflict, while starvation can be both a consequence of war and a deliberate weapon to starve out an enemy. She said food insecurity and hunger may themselves create conflict, just as war and conflict may cause food insecurity and even famine.

She pointed to the continuing need for the WFP's work in conflicts then ongoing in Yemen, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, among other conflict-torn areas, and said she was glad that the WFP and its director David Beasley were finally able to travel to Oslo to deliver the Nobel lecture in person.

She closed by stating that the award to the WFP was compliant with Alfred Nobel's will, because the organisation's work fosters fraternity between nations and promotes the abolition of hunger as a weapon of war.

Quick facts for exams

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations agency founded in 1961, for its work in combating hunger, improving conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas, and resisting the use of hunger as a weapon of war.

The award was announced on 9 October 2020 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and the WFP received the full prize worth 10,000,000 Swedish kronor.

The citation linked the WFP's humanitarian relief work directly to peacemaking, noting its role in the 2018 UN Security Council resolution on conflict and hunger.

This is a useful example for general-studies and quiz questions on the UN system and global hunger.

Note: Source. The prize facts in this note are from the Nobel Prize's official site, nobelprize.org.

Glossary

• World Food Programme (WFP) — a United Nations agency that provides emergency food assistance and works towards long-term food security.
• Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) — the UN body, co-founder of the WFP, concerned with agriculture and food standards worldwide.
• Acute hunger — a severe, often sudden lack of enough food that threatens health or survival.
• Food security — a state in which people have reliable access to enough safe and nutritious food.
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a set of global targets adopted by the UN in 2015, including the goal of ending hunger.
• UN Security Council — the UN body responsible for international peace and security, able to pass binding resolutions.
• Resolution 2417 — a 2018 UN Security Council resolution linking conflict with hunger and condemning starvation as a weapon of war.
• Norwegian Nobel Committee — the five-member body in Oslo that selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureate each year.
• Fraternity between nations — a phrase from Alfred Nobel's will describing cooperation and goodwill among countries as a goal of the Peace Prize.
• Humanitarian organisation — a body that provides aid to people in distress, regardless of their nationality or political side.
• Weaponisation of hunger — the deliberate use of starvation as a tactic to harm or control a population during conflict.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was given to a person. Correct: It was given entirely to the World Food Programme, an organisation.
• Misconception: The WFP was created specifically to win this prize or during 2020. Correct: It was founded in 1961, decades before the award.
• Misconception: The prize was only about pandemic relief. Correct: The citation centres on combating hunger and the link between hunger and armed conflict, with the pandemic as a worsening factor.
• Misconception: Resolution 2417 was passed in 2020, the same year as the award. Correct: It was adopted in May 2018 by the UN Security Council.
• Misconception: The WFP is an independent charity unconnected to the UN. Correct: It was founded by the UN General Assembly together with the FAO and works within the UN system.
• Misconception: The award ceremony happened in 2020. Correct: The ceremony speech is dated 10 December 2021, when the WFP director received the prize in Oslo.
• Misconception: This was the first Nobel Peace Prize linked to hunger. Correct: Earlier prizes went to FAO's John Boyd Orr in 1949 and Norman Ernest Borlaug in 1970 for related work.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. In which year was the World Food Programme founded? [1 mark]

1. The World Food Programme was founded in 1961, by the UN General Assembly and the FAO.

Q2. Name the UN Security Council resolution linking conflict and hunger. [1 mark]

1. Resolution 2417, adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council in May 2018.

Q3. State the prize amount and date of announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize 2020. [2 marks]

1. The prize was worth 10,000,000 Swedish kronor.
2. It was announced on 9 October 2020 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Q4. Explain, in your own words, why the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2020 Peace Prize to the World Food Programme. [4 marks]

1. The committee cited the WFP's efforts to combat hunger across dozens of countries affected by conflict.
2. It credited the WFP's contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas through combined humanitarian and peace-building projects.
3. It recognised the WFP as a driving force behind efforts to prevent hunger being used as a weapon of war, including its role in the diplomatic process leading to UN Security Council Resolution 2417.
4. The committee also connected this work to Alfred Nobel's will, calling the WFP a "modern version of the peace congresses" the prize was meant to promote.

Q5. Explain the link between hunger and conflict as described by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. [4 marks]

1. War and armed conflict can disrupt farming, trade and aid delivery, causing food insecurity and hunger.
2. In turn, hunger and food insecurity can cause existing tensions to flare up into violence.
3. In some conflicts, parties deliberately use starvation as a weapon against opposing populations.
4. The committee called this a vicious circle, and argued that zero hunger cannot be achieved without also ending war and armed conflict.

Q6. Discuss the significance of the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 for global efforts against hunger. [5 marks]

1. The award drew global attention to a worsening hunger crisis, with 135 million people suffering acute hunger in 2019, mostly due to conflict, even before the pandemic struck.
2. By honouring an operational humanitarian agency rather than an individual, the committee framed everyday food assistance work as a genuine contribution to peace, not merely charity.
3. The citation highlighted the WFP's role in the diplomatic process behind UN Security Council Resolution 2417 in 2018, showing how humanitarian organisations can shape international law and norms around conflict.
4. The committee explicitly warned that without continued financial support, the world risked a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions, linking the symbolic prize to a practical call for funding.
5. The award also built on a long tradition at the Nobel Committee of recognising anti-hunger work, following the 1949 prize to FAO's John Boyd Orr and the 1970 prize to Norman Ernest Borlaug, situating the WFP's achievement within a wider history of linking food security to peace.

Q7. Name two earlier Nobel Peace Prize laureates whose work was related to hunger or food, according to the sources. [2 marks]

1. John Boyd Orr, FAO's Director General, who won the Peace Prize in 1949.
2. Norman Ernest Borlaug, called "the father of the Green Revolution", who won the Peace Prize in 1970.

Key takeaways

• The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 went entirely to the World Food Programme, a UN agency founded in 1961.
• The citation covered combating hunger, improving peace conditions in conflict areas, and opposing hunger as a weapon of war.
• In 2019, close to 100 million people in 88 countries received WFP assistance amid rising global hunger.
• The committee highlighted the WFP's role in the 2018 UN Security Council Resolution 2417 on conflict and hunger.
• The prize was announced on 9 October 2020 and worth 10,000,000 Swedish kronor.
• Hunger and conflict were described as a vicious circle, each capable of worsening the other.
• Earlier related Peace Prizes went to FAO's John Boyd Orr in 1949 and Norman Ernest Borlaug in 1970.
• The award ceremony for the 2020 prize was held in December 2021, delayed from the usual schedule.

Test yourself

Who received the Nobel Peace Prize 2020?

The World Food Programme, a United Nations agency, received the whole Nobel Peace Prize 2020.

When was the World Food Programme founded, and by whom?

The WFP was founded in 1961 by the UN General Assembly together with the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

What did UN Security Council Resolution 2417 do?

Adopted in May 2018, it explicitly linked conflict and hunger and condemned using starvation as a method of warfare.

How many people did the WFP assist in 2019?

The WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries facing acute food insecurity.

What phrase did the committee use to compare the WFP to Nobel's original vision?

The committee called the WFP "a modern version of the peace congresses" the Nobel Peace Prize was meant to promote.

Which two earlier laureates worked on hunger-related issues?

John Boyd Orr of the FAO, who won in 1949, and Norman Ernest Borlaug, who won in 1970.

How many people suffered acute hunger worldwide in 2019?

About 135 million people suffered from acute hunger in 2019, the highest figure in many years.