The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says they are deeply humbled by the awarding of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to combat hunger among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. WFP says the honor is in recognition of the work of their staff who put their lives on the line every day to bring food and assistance to more than 100 million hungry children, women and men across the world.
WFP’s Executive Director, David Beasley, says, “The Nobel Peace Prize is not WFP’s alone. We work closely with governments, organizations and private sector partners whose passion for helping the hungry and vulnerable equals ours. We could not possibly help anyone without them. We are an operational agency and the daily work of our staff each day is driven by our core values of integrity, humanity and inclusion.”
At the same time, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has congratulated WFP Executive Director, David Beasley, and its entire staff for advancing the values of the United Nations every day and serving the cause of “we the peoples” as the UN marks its 75th anniversary this year. He then hailed WFP as the “world’s first responder” on the frontlines of food insecurity.
WFP Liberia’s Country Director, Karla Hershey, says, “WFP is extremely honored and moved by this award, which we happily share with the government and people of Liberia. Only by sustaining peace can we really achieve zero hunger by 2030–this could not be more relevant than in Liberia. The Nobel Peace Prize is a humbling recognition of food security as an instrument of peace and WFP’s enabling role in bridging humanitarian-development-peace efforts by addressing the immediate humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities, whilst supporting national governments to strengthen their systems to become more shock-responsive to crises, natural hazards and health pandemics, like COVID-19.”
In Liberia, WFP provides vulnerable people, especially women and youth, with rural employment opportunities through social cohesion processes. For example, in Lofa and Bong County, WFP applies its community-based participatory planning processes to bring together people from different arrays of society, including community leaders, local government and the private sector, to jointly identify key activities for the survival of their society. In Nimba, Maryland, Grand Cape Mount and Sinoe counties, WFP works with partners to address conflict drivers related to the depletion of livelihood opportunities and environmental hazards.
“WFP is pleased to be the lead implementing partner of the government on the COVID-19 Household Food Support Programme (COHFSP) that is the government’s widest social safety-net programme, aiming to reach up to 2.5 million vulnerable poor and the most food-insecure people in all 15 counties. It is one of the best examples of an UN-government partnership in which the food programme is from the people of Liberia to the country’s citizens through their own government.
WFP has been in Liberia since 1968 working on school feeding and other social protection programmes, emergency response, livelihoods and agriculture assets development for rural dwellers, scaling up of nutrition, and capacity strengthening of both beneficiaries and counterparts.