GOAL welcomes Nobel Prize win for partners World Food Programme

GOAL has welcomed the awarding of this year’s prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to our partner, the World Food Programme (WFP), for its efforts to combat hunger.

The WFP, the 101^st winner of the prize, is an essential partner of GOAL. The two organisations work side by side in countries like Iraq to provide food and nutrition to the world’s poorest communities.

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish Krona (€960,000).

In 2019 – 2020, GOAL partnered with WFP in Mosul in Iraq, supporting 200 vulnerable families, including female headed households.  The work centres on establishing greenhouses with labour, seeds and tools all provided by the project. With much of Mosul’s infrastructure and economy destroyed, the previously vulnerable families will now have access to an income-earning asset that will continue to generate income in to the future.

In total, GOAL is helping 3,750 people through our two programmes with the WFP.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the winner, said the WFP has acted “as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”

The WFP, which last year assisted 97 million people in 88 countries, said it was “deeply humbled”.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought hunger and starvation to the forefront of global humanitarian efforts. In many of the world’s poorest countries, people live off their day-to-day wages. Social distancing and self-isolation can often result in the loss of income and therefore impact food security.

The Nobel Committee recognised that the pandemic has further boosted the importance of organisations that assist vulnerable communities with food and nutrition, such as GOAL and the WFP. In 2019, GOAL reached over 939,000 people with food and nutrition supports across three continents.

Lorraine Marriott, GOAL’s Middle East Director offered her congratulations to the WFP.

“We see everyday the work WFP do in countries like Iraq. Their commitment to tackling hunger globally makes them a worthy winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.”