In addition to bread, the UN program also often creates access for others to crisis areas, says DR’s Africa correspondent.
When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today, it went to the UN World Food Program.
A decision that actually came behind DR’s Africa correspondent, Søren Bendixen.
For the past two years, the awards have gone to African personalities, and the food program as a UN institution is international, but it plays a crucial role on the African continent, so this time the Nobel Committee would probably look in a different direction, Søren assessed. Bendixen.
But when the choice fell on the food program anyway, it was actually about more than food.
– It is the most important lifeline in many places. And at the same time, it is an organization that is so large that it paves the way for other relief organizations to carry out their work. It is often the one who is responsible for the logistics, so that other players also have access to the crisis areas, explains DR’s Africa correspondent.
Really makes a difference
Søren Bendixen has encountered the food program and its seconded employees several times.
This is how it must be when, as part of the job description, the task is to seek out natural disasters and war-torn areas.
– It is actually fairly difficult to avoid meeting it, because it is just present. For example, when Hurricane Idai hit Mozambique, in Zimbabwe and South Sudan and other places where people live extremely extreme, he says.
For the same reason, he also thinks that the choice of the Nobel Committee makes good sense.
– If you have to point to one organization that really makes a difference for those who are really in need, then the food program is impossible to get around, he says.
Gloomy future forecast
On the other hand, there is plenty to look forward to for an organization whose mission is to feed hungry mouths worldwide.
If current trends continue, the number of hungry people will reach 840 million by 2030.
This is the gloomy prediction even from the UN’s World Food Program.
The Peace Prize was awarded to the food program on the following grounds:
“For its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to improving 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 in war and conflict,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen. , who chairs the Nobel Committee.
