The Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 was awarded to World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday.
The Nobel Prize Committee took to Twitter to announce the winner: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP).”
The Nobel Committee said that the coronavirus pandemic has added to the hunger faced by millions of people around the world and called on governments to ensure that WFP and other aid organizations receive the financial support necessary to feed them.
There was no shortage of causes or candidates on this year’s list, with 211 individuals and 107 organizations were nominated. Nominations can be made by a select group, including national lawmakers, heads of state and certain international institutions. The deadline for nominations was February 1, which means that those on the front lines of fighting COVID-19 – which was only declared a pandemic in March – appear unlikely contenders.
Along with enormous prestige, the prize comes with a 10-milion krona (USD 1.1 million) cash award and a gold medal to be handed out at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death. This year’s ceremony will be scaled down due to the pandemic.
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, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday went to scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool. The literature prize was awarded to 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.
