Newspress

ROME - L'attribution du prix Nobel de la paix au Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM) est une reconnaissance encourageante et émouvante du travail du personnel du PAM. Ils sont chaque jour en première ligne sur le terrain pour apporter de la nourriture et une assistance à près de 100 millions d'enfants, de femmes et d'hommes souffrant de la faim dans le monde. Des personnes dont les vies sont souvent bouleversées par l'instabilité, l'insécurité et les conflits.
Chacune des 690 millions de personnes touchées par la faim dans le monde aujourd'hui a le droit de vivre en paix et sans souffrir de la faim. Aujourd'hui, le Comité Nobel norvégien a attiré l'attention du monde entier sur ces personnes et sur les conséquences dévastatrices des conflits. Les chocs climatiques et les pressions économiques ont encore aggravé leur situation. En ce moment même, une pandémie mondiale aux conséquences désastreuses sur les économies et les communautés conduit des millions de personnes supplémentaires vers la faim.

Le prix Nobel de la paix ne récompense pas uniquement le PAM. Nous travaillons en étroite collaboration avec des gouvernements, des organisations et des partenaires du secteur privé dont l'engagement pour venir en aide aux personnes souffrant de la faim et vulnérables est égal au nôtre. Sans eux, nous ne pourrions mener à bien nos missions. Nous sommes une agence opérationnelle et le travail quotidien de notre personnel est guidé par nos valeurs fondamentales d'intégrité, d'humanité et d'inclusion.

Là où il y a un conflit, il y a la faim. Et là où il y a la faim, il y a souvent un conflit. Aujourd'hui, nous rappelons que la sécurité alimentaire, la paix et la stabilité vont de pair. Sans la paix, nous ne pouvons pas atteindre notre objectif global de faim zéro ; et tant qu'il y aura la faim, nous n'aurons jamais un monde en paix.

Le Programme alimentaire mondial des Nations unies est la plus grande organisation humanitaire au monde. Il sauve des vies dans les situations d'urgence, construit la prospérité et favorise un avenir durable pour les personnes qui se relèvent de conflits, de catastrophes et de l'impact du changement climatique.

PLUS D'INFO

About the prize
"The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: /- - -/ one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." (Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel)

Alfred Nobel showed a big interest in social issues and was engaged in the peace movement. His acquaintance with Bertha von Suttner, who was a driving force in the international peace movement in Europe and later awarded the Peace Prize, influenced his views on peace. Peace was the fifth and final prize area that Nobel mentioned in his will. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget).

Announcement
The need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is more conspicuous than ever. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 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.

The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security. In 2019, the WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger. In 2015, eradicating hunger was adopted as one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The WFP is the UN's primary instrument for realising this goal. In recent years, the situation has taken a negative turn. In 2019, 135 million people suffered from acute hunger, the highest number in many years. Most of the increase was caused by war and armed conflict.

The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world. In 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. In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts. As the organisation itself has stated, "Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos."

The world is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the World Food Programme and other food assistance organisations do not receive the financial support they have requested.

The 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. We will never achieve the goal of zero hunger unless we also put an end to war and armed conflict.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to emphasise that providing assistance to increase food security not only prevents hunger, but can also help to improve prospects for stability and peace. The World Food Programme has taken the lead in combining humanitarian work with peace efforts through pioneering projects in South America, Africa and Asia.

The World Food Programme was an active participant in the diplomatic process that culminated in May 2018 in the UN Security Council's unanimous adoption of Resolution 2417, which for the first time explicitly addressed the link between conflict and hunger. The Security Council also underscored UN Member States' obligation to help ensure that food assistance reaches those in need, and condemned the use of starvation as a method of warfare.

With this year's 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. The World Food Programme plays a key role in multilateral cooperation on making food security an instrument of peace, and has made a strong contribution towards mobilising UN Member States to combat the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict. The organisation contributes daily to advancing the fraternity of nations referred to in Alfred Nobel's will. As the UN's largest specialised agency, the World Food Programme is a modern version of the peace congresses that the Nobel Peace Prize is intended to promote.

The work of the World Food Programme to the benefit of humankind is an endeavour that all the nations of the world should be able to endorse and support.

Oslo, 9 OctobER
Republication /