Nobel Peace Prize 2020: UN World Food Programme, winner of the award
The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) was this year's proud recipient of the award “for its efforts to combat hunger" among other efforts.
On Thursday 10 December the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), during a ceremony that was held virtually due to the safety protocols related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Nobel Peace Prize 2020: WFP
In the acceptance speech delivered by the head of the organisation, David Beasley, the threat of starvation of around 270 million people gloablly - the equivalent to the combined populations of Germany, the UK, France and Italy - was highlighted. The WFP has coordinated medical logistics during the covid-19 pandemic and had been announced winner of the award for 2020 back in October.
"Because of so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health pandemic that makes all of that exponentially worse - 270 million people are marching toward starvation," Beasley said from the WFP headquarters in Rome.
Bigger threat than covid-19
"Failure to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which will dwarf the impact of covid. And if that's not bad enough, out of that 270 million, 30 million depend on us 100% for their survival," he added.
Instead of the usual ceremony at the Oslo City Hall before dignitaries including Norway's King Harald, WFP officials stayed in Rome due to the coronavirus pandemic. They are, however, expected to travel to Oslo at a later stage to deliver the traditional Nobel lecture.
The remaining Nobel awards - for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics - which are traditionally handed out in Stockholm - have also been moved online. The ceremonies are held every year on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
All Nobel Peace Prize winners
Since it was first introduced, the Nobel Peace Prize has been won by 98 individuals and 20 organisations, Thursday seeing the latest of those:
The Nobel Peace Prize 2020
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”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2019
Abiy Ahmed Ali “for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2018
Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2017
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2016
Juan Manuel Santos “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2015
National Dialogue Quartet “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2014
Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2013
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2012
European Union (EU) “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2011
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2010
Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2009
Barack H. Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2008
Martti Ahtisaari “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2007
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2006
Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2005
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2004
Wangari Muta Maathai “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2003
Shirin Ebadi “for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2002
Jimmy Carter “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2001
United Nations (U.N.) and Kofi Annan “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world”
The Nobel Peace Prize 2000
Kim Dae-jung “for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1999
Médecins Sans Frontières “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1998
John Hume and David Trimble “for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1997
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Jody Williams “for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1996
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta “for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1995
Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs “for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1994
Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1993
Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1992
Rigoberta Menchú Tum “for her struggle for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1991
Aung San Suu Kyi “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1990
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev “for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1989
The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) “for advocating peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1988
United Nations Peacekeeping Forces “for preventing armed clashes and creating conditions for negotiations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1987
Oscar Arias Sánchez “for his work for lasting peace in Central America”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1986
Elie Wiesel “for being a messenger to mankind: his message is one of peace, atonement and dignity”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1985
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War “for spreading authoritative information and by creating awareness of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1984
Desmond Mpilo Tutu “for his role as a unifying leader figure in the non-violent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1983
Lech Walesa “for non-violent struggle for free trade unions and human rights in Poland”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1982
Alva Myrdal and Alfonso García Robles “for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1981
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “for promoting the fundamental rights of refugees”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1980
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel “for being a source of inspiration to repressed people, especially in Latin America”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1979
Mother Teresa “for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1978
Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin “for jointly having negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel in 1978”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1977
Amnesty International “for worldwide respect for human rights”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1976
Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan “for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1975
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov “for his struggle for human rights in the Soviet Union, for disarmament and cooperation between all nations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1974
Seán MacBride “for his efforts to secure and develop human rights throughout the world” and Eisaku Sato “for his contribution to stabilize conditions in the Pacific rim area and for signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1973
Henry A. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho “for jointly having negotiated a cease fire in Vietnam in 1973”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1972
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money for 1972 was allocated to the Main Fund.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1971
Willy Brandt “for paving the way for a meaningful dialogue between East and West”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1970
Norman E. Borlaug “for having given a well-founded hope – the green revolution”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1969
International Labour Organization (I.L.O.) “for creating international legislation insuring certain norms for working conditions in every country”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1968
René Cassin “for his struggle to ensure the rights of man as stipulated in the UN Declaration”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1967
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1966
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1965
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “for its effort to enhance solidarity between nations and reduce the difference between rich and poor states”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964
Martin Luther King Jr. “for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1963
Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross) and Ligue des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge (League of Red Cross Societies) “for promoting the principles of the Geneva Convention and cooperation with the UN”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1962
Linus Carl Pauling “for his fight against the nuclear arms race between East and West”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1961
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld “for developing the UN into an effective and constructive international organization, capable of giving life to the principles and aims expressed in the UN Charter”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1960
Albert John Lutuli “for his non-violent struggle against apartheid”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1959
Philip J. Noel-Baker “for his longstanding contribution to the cause of disarmament and peace”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1958
Georges Pire “for his efforts to help refugees to leave their camps and return to a life of freedom and dignity”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1957
Lester Bowles Pearson “for his crucial contribution to the deployment of a United Nations Emergency Force in the wake of the Suez Crisis”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1956
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1955
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1954
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “for its efforts to heal the wounds of war by providing help and protection to refugees all over the world”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1953
George Catlett Marshall “for proposing and supervising the plan for the economic recovery of Europe”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1952
Albert Schweitzer “for his altruism, reverence for life, and tireless humanitarian work which has helped making the idea of brotherhood between men and nations a living one”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1951
Léon Jouhaux “for having devoted his life to the fight against war through the promotion of social justice and brotherhood among men and nations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1950
Ralph Bunche “for his work as mediator in Palestine in 1948-1949”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1949
Lord (John) Boyd Orr of Brechin “for his lifelong effort to conquer hunger and want, thereby helping to remove a major cause of military conflict and war”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1948
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1947
Friends Service Council (The Quakers) and American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers) “for their pioneering work in the international peace movement and compassionate effort to relieve human suffering, thereby promoting the fraternity between nations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1946
Emily Greene Balch “for her lifelong work for the cause of peace” and John Raleigh Mott “for his contribution to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1945
Cordell Hull “for his indefatigable work for international understanding and his pivotal role in establishing the United Nations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1944
Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross) “for the great work it has performed during the war on behalf of humanity”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1943
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1942
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1941
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1940
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1939
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1938
Office international Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Nansen International Office for Refugees) “for having carried on the work of Fridtjof Nansen to the benefit of refugees across Europe”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1937
Cecil of Chelwood, Viscount (Lord Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Cecil) “for his tireless effort in support of the League of Nations, disarmament and peace”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1936
Carlos Saavedra Lamas “for his role as father of the Argentine Antiwar Pact of 1933, which he also used as a means to mediate peace between Paraguay and Bolivia in 1935”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1935
Carl von Ossietzky “for his burning love for freedom of thought and expression and his valuable contribution to the cause of peace”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1934
Arthur Henderson “for his untiring struggle and his courageous efforts as Chairman of the League of Nations Disarmament Conference 1931-34”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1933
Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) “for having exposed by his pen the illusion of war and presented a convincing plea for international cooperation and peace”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1932
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1931
Jane Addams and Nicholas Murray Butler “for their assiduous effort to revive the ideal of peace and to rekindle the spirit of peace in their own nation and in the whole of mankind”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1930
Lars Olof Jonathan (Nathan) Söderblom “for promoting Christian unity and helping create ‘that new attitude of mind which is necessary if peace between nations is to become reality'”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1929
Frank Billings Kellogg “for his crucial role in bringing about the Briand-Kellogg Pact”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1928
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1927
Ferdinand Buisson and Ludwig Quidde “for their contribution to the emergence in France and Germany of a public opinion which favours peaceful international cooperation”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1926
Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann “for their crucial role in bringing about the Locarno Treaty”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1925
Sir Austen Chamberlain “for his crucial role in bringing about the Locarno Treaty” and Charles Gates Dawes “for his crucial role in bringing about the Dawes Plan”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1924
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1923
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1922
Fridtjof Nansen “for his leading role in the repatriation of prisoners of war, in international relief work and as the League of Nations’ High Commissioner for refugees”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1921
Karl Hjalmar Branting and Christian Lous Lange “for their lifelong contributions to the cause of peace and organized internationalism”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1920
Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois “for his longstanding contribution to the cause of peace and justice and his prominent role in the establishment of the League of Nations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1919
Thomas Woodrow Wilson “for his role as founder of the League of Nations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1918
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1917
Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross) “for the efforts to take care of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war and their families”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1916
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1915
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1914
No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1913
Henri La Fontaine “for his unparalleled contribution to the organization of peaceful internationalism”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1912
Elihu Root “for bringing about better understanding between the countries of North and South America and initiating important arbitration agreements between the United States and other countries”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1911
Tobias Michael Carel Asser “for his role as co-founder of the Institut de droit international, initiator of the Conferences on International Private Law (Conférences de Droit international privé) at the Hague, and pioneer in the field of international legal relations” and Alfred Hermann Fried “for his effort to expose and fight what he considers to be the main cause of war, namely, the anarchy in international relations”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1910
Bureau international permanent de la Paix (Permanent International Peace Bureau) “for acting as a link between the peace societies of the various countries, and helping them to organize the world rallies of the international peace movement”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1909
Auguste Marie François Beernaert and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d’Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque “for their prominent position in the international movement for peace and arbitration”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1908
Klas Pontus Arnoldson and Fredrik Bajer “for their long time work for the cause of peace as politicians, peace society leaders, orators and authors”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1907
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta “for his work in the press and in peace meetings, both public and private, for an understanding between France and Italy” and Louis Renault “for his decisive influence upon the conduct and outcome of the Hague and Geneva Conferences”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1906
Theodore Roosevelt “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1905
Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, née Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau “for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1904
Institut de droit international (Institute of International Law) “for its striving in public law to develop peaceful ties between nations and to make the laws of war more humane”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1903
William Randal Cremer “for his longstanding and devoted effort in favour of the ideas of peace and arbitration”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1902
Élie Ducommun “for his untiring and skilful directorship of the Bern Peace Bureau” and Charles Albert Gobat “for his eminently practical administration of the Inter-Parliamentary Union”
The Nobel Peace Prize 1901
Jean Henry Dunant “for his humanitarian efforts to help wounded soldiers and create international understanding” and Frédéric Passy “for his lifelong work for international peace conferences, diplomacy and arbitration”