Food is the pathway to peace

In October, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was named the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2020 in recognition of its work addressing the link between conflict and hunger. The Nobel Prize Award Committee noted the critical role that food assistance plays in supporting people living in conflict zones as they take the first steps towards peace and stability. The award ensures that the struggle of the 690 million people who live with chronic hunger will take centre stage, and WFP is making every effort to use this platform to amplify their voices and mobilise support.

On 16 November, at a high-level online meeting hosted by WFP, broadcast on UNTV and attended by the heads of the World Bank and IMF, UN Secretary General António Guterres made this statement: “The Peace Prize is given to reward, different personalities in different moments, but this prize is special because it sends an important message. And the message is that food is peace. Hunger is an outrage in a world of plenty. An empty stomach is a gaping hole in the heart of a society.”

The drivers of hunger

Conflict is a key driver of hunger. Many of the people WFP supports are fleeing conflict, and have been forced to abandon their land, homes and jobs, sometimes even their families. UN World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley during today’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance ceremony said “We believe food is the pathway to peace. This Nobel Peace Prize is more than a thank you. It is a call to action. 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. Failure to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which will dwarf the impact of COVID.”

In Jordan, the pandemic has had a particular impact on people’s food security and pushed already vulnerable populations further into poverty. According to a WFP September assessment on food security of refugees in Jordan, 23 per cent of refugee families living in communities across Jordan are food insecure, a 10 per cent increase since 2018, while 67 per cent are vulnerable to food insecurity.

The pandemic has also impacted children as schools and school meals have been suspended and more children are being pushed into child labour and early marriage.

WFP in Jordan

Jordan is playing a role in the battle against hunger with the joint vision of His Majesty King Abdullah and the government to make Jordan the centre for food security in the region. The government is one of WFP’s valued collaborators, especially in managing food assistance, livelihoods and social protection projects both strategically and on the ground, including in the preparation of a national strategy for food security for Jordan. WFP is helping Jordan tackle root causes of hunger while strengthening livelihoods, resilience and nutrition long-term.

As Jordan ensures humanitarian workers and food assistance continue to access where they are needed, one in ten people across the country receive some form of assistance from WFP every year to meet their food and nutritional needs. With this strong commitment to the Jordanian people, we can lessen the suffering caused by hunger and malnutrition and meet head-on the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Partners

This Nobel award is one that WFP shares with many others, the governments who support us, the NGOs we work with in the field, and our UN sister agencies and other providers of humanitarian and development aid. In Jordan, WFP works with around 30 partners to implement activities that support 1 million people every year through food and livelihoods support, including government ministries, national and international NGOs as well as the communities themselves.

“We could not possibly help the people we serve without our partners and communities; this prize is a recognition of the work we do together with all our partners. I have been working with WFP for over 25 years and seeing the impact on the people we serve every day is an inspiration for all of us to continue to save lives and change lives and we look forward to building on this over the next years”, says Alberto Mendes, Representative and Country Director to WFP in Jordan.

With the combined help its donors and UN and NGO partners, WFP is able to reach 100 million people with food assistance in more than 80 countries every year. But more needs to be done. 

Looking ahead — The threat 

of a hunger pandemic

As a consequence of COVID-19, in coming months the number of acutely food-insecure people could increase to 270 million in 2021 in the 80 countries where WFP works. The organisation is mobilising its 20,000 strong workforce to meet the food needs of up to 138 million people in 2020 in what will be the largest humanitarian operation in its history.

Close partnerships with governments will be essential to prevent and mitigate poverty and hunger as we face the ongoing second wave of the virus.

“Failure to prevent famine in our day will destroy so many lives and cause the fall of much we hold dear”, said Beasely during the acceptance ceremony. “There is $400 trillion dollars of wealth in our world today. Even at the height of the COVID pandemic, in just 90 days, an additional $2.7 trillion dollars of wealth was created. And we only need $5 billion dollars to save 30 million lives from famine,” said Beasely.

In Jordan, WFP is already working closely with donors and partners on bridging the funding gap so we can reach more people with the kind of smart, efficient and scalable responses needed to save and better lives that have been shattered by COVID-19.

As the Nobel Committee has said, the world today is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if WFP and other assistance organisations do not receive the financial support they desperately need.