The Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 has been awarded to the UN’s World Food Programme. The prize was announced at the Nobel Institute in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday. The committee announced it on Twitter too. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme,” its Twitter handle stated.
Top contenders for the prize included climate change activist Greta Thunberg, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
With the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the WFP, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sought to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger—the numbers of those suffering from hunger have been amplified thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The WFP helps approximately 97 million people suffering from hunger each year. The prize is worth 10m Swedish krona ($1.1 million).
From 1901 to 2019, 100 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded.
On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize for physiology and medicine to researchers who discovered the liver-ravaging Hepatitis C virus. The physics prize honoured breakthroughs in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes. On Wednesday, Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the US were awarded the chemistry prize and on Thursday, American poet Louise Gluck won the literature prize. Yet to be announced is the Nobel Prize for outstanding work in the field of economics.