A Nobel Case: Why USAID Deserves the Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize has always stood as recognition of those who have worked tirelessly to reduce conflict, ease suffering, and build a more peaceful world. While many recipients have been individuals, institutions too have been recognised when their collective impact has shifted the course of history, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and the World Food Programme, to name a few. In this spirit, there is a growing chorus of voices suggesting that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) should be recognised. Founded in 1961, USAID spent more than six decades as America’s lead development agency, quietly working in the shadows of diplomacy and defense. Its work rarely made headlines, but its impact was monumental.

Preventing War by Fighting Poverty

The Nobel Committee has long emphasized the link between peace and development. Where hunger, disease, and despair dominate, conflict festers. USAID’s mission was to confront these root causes. From providing famine relief in Ethiopia, to rebuilding war-torn societies in the Balkans, to stabilising fragile states in sub-Saharan Africa, USAID played an essential role in reducing the desperation that fuels violence.

USAID was instrumental in some of the greatest humanitarian advances of the last century. Its partnerships helped cut child mortality worldwide, expand access to vaccines, and spearhead efforts against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Economic development programs supported by USAID created opportunities for millions, lifting communities out of grinding poverty. When entire societies became healthier and more prosperous, they became less vulnerable to radicalisation and internal strife.

Development is not only about food aid and medicine, it is about building systems that last. USAID trained teachers, built schools, developed infrastructure, and supported civil society. It helped foster governance reforms, promote women’s empowerment, and strengthen the rule of law. Each of these investments was a down payment on a more stable, peaceful future.

A Call to Action

President Trump dismantled the agency, with its remaining programs absorbed into the State Department. Hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for some of the world’s poorest people were cancelled in the process. By tradition, the sitting U.S. President would travel to Oslo to accept the award on the agency’s behalf. Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It would be the very definition of irony for President Trump to be invited to Oslo to collect a Nobel Peace Prize not for his own achievements, but for an agency whose mission he dismantled.

And yet, perhaps fitting, USAID’s mission was always bigger than politics and personalities. Its work was about peace, prosperity, and the prevention of conflict. That is exactly what the Nobel Peace Prize was created to honour. If USAID’s decades of service to humanity are to be remembered and honoured in this way, it will take concerted public pressure to call for it to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Doing so would not only acknowledge its extraordinary legacy but also send a powerful signal: that the global community values development as a path to peace.