The United Nations food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas.

The Rome-based organization says it helps some 97 million people in about 88 countries each year and that one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat.

"The need for international solidarity and multilateral co-operation is more conspicuous than ever," chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee told a news conference.

The last time the accolade was awarded to a group was in 2017, when the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won.

WATCH | 2020 Nobel Peace Prize announcement:

There was no shortage of causes or candidates on this year's list.

While the Norwegian Nobel Committee maintains absolute secrecy about whom it favours for arguably the world's most prestigious prize, that has never stopped speculation ahead of the announcement.

Guesses — and bets — this year had focused on Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, recovering from a nerve agent attack he blames on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the World Health Organization for its role in addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Even U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to believe he deserves the prize, though one of the few predictions that pundits felt comfortable making was that he would be disappointed.

There were 318 candidates — 211 individuals and 107 organizations. Nominations could be made by a select group, including national lawmakers, heads of state and certain international institutions.

The deadline for nominations was Feb. 1, which meant that those on the front lines of fighting COVID-19 — which was only declared a pandemic in March — appeared unlikely contenders.

Along with enormous prestige, the prize comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.5 million Cdn) cash award and a gold medal to be handed out at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death. This year's ceremony will be scaled down due to the pandemic.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize for physiology and medicine for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus. Tuesday's prize for physics honoured breakthroughs in understanding the mysteries of cosmic black holes, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday went to scientists behind a powerful gene-editing tool. The literature prize was awarded to American poet Louise Glück on Thursday for her "candid and uncompromising" work.

Still to come next week is the prize for outstanding work in the field of economics.