World hunger fighting organization led by former SC governor wins Nobel Peace Prize
David Beasley has gone from being a one-term governor of South Carolina to helping win one of the highest honors in the world.
The Nobel Committee awarded its Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations’ World Food Programme. Beasley is executive director of the organization.
“This is the first time in my life that I’ve been speechless,” Beasley said in a video he posted on social media.
Beasley said the award belongs to the World Food Programme “family.”
“They’re our there in the most difficult, complex places in the world. Whether it’s war, conflict or climate extremes, it doesn’t matter, they’re out there,” he said.
The Nobel Committee gave the award to the programme for “its efforts to combat hunger, for its contributions to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in the effort to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the chair of the Nobel Committee said when announcing the award.
In 2019, the Programme provided assistance to nearly one million people in 88 countries “who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.”
About 17,000 people work for the Programme, according to its website.
Beasley was a Republican governor of the Palmetto State from 1995 to 1999.
He’s remembered as the governor who came out against the Confederate Flag flying atop the State House dome, which political observers said cost him the support of conservative South Carolina voters.
The Confederate Flag was taken off the State House dome the year after Beasley left office.
In 2017, former Governor Nikki Haley nominated Beasley to be the next director of World Food Programme while she was the United State ambassador to the UN.
“I believe what the committee has done today is give recognition to the fact that we can’t forget about the poor, the needy and the vulnerable that are suffering around the world,” Beasley said in a call with the secretary of the Nobel Committee. “The message to the world is powerful, and the world needs a good message right now.”
This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 9:57 AM.