The news that his team won this year's Nobel Peace Prize found Nenad Lončarević in Panama.
Nenad has been employed by the World Food Program for two decades, and he sees the award that the United Nations (UN) program received this year for his efforts in the fight against hunger as a personal success for all the years invested in helping vulnerable populations around the world.
The World Food Program (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organization in the world that saves nearly 100 million children and adults from the effects of hunger worldwide, in about 90 countries.
Explaining that he was "a driving force in efforts to prevent the misuse of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict", the Nobel Prize Committee decided that among 211 individuals and 107 organizations this year, as the 101st recipient, the WFP, which in the conditions of the coronavirus, when everyone was closed, he was there for those in need.
Lončarević started working for WFP in 1999 in Bar, where the office was then opened due to the crisis in Kosovo and refugees in Serbia and Montenegro. In addition to the office in Bar, WFP then also had an office in Podgorica. Lončarević began his engagement as an assistant in charge of tasks related to the import, reception, loading/unloading and dispatch of humanitarian aid that came through the Port of Bar for the vulnerable population. He remained in the bar office until 2001, when his international career at WFP began and when he was engaged as a consultant in various jobs - always, he says, in the logistics department. He worked in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, where as a consultant he was engaged in work related to the crisis in Afghanistan, because, he says, food went through those corridors. He also worked in Syria, Kuwait, Iraq (crisis in Iraq), Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala, when the area was hit by Hurricane Stan in 2005... He also worked in Palestine, Israel.
"I got a more permanent contract in WFP in 2008 when I was chosen as the deputy head of logistics in Khartoum, Sudan, for two years. I continued my engagement in Rome between 2010 and 2017, then in Juba, South Sudan (2017 to 2019), and now work in our largest operation in Yemen (based in the port of Aden since 2019). Last month I had a mission in Venezuela, and I am currently in the Regional Office in Panama, heading the supply chain for all Latin American and Caribbean countries. In short, my role is to ensure that food reaches millions of children and adults who need help on time, wherever they are in the countries where I am engaged and by whatever means of transportation is necessary to achieve that goal - by trucks, boats, airplanes, helicopters, special vehicles, bicycles, manpower - cattle..." he told "Vijesti".
Even before the Nobel Prize, his team was awarded for their commitment to saving lives.
"While I was in South Sudan, in 2018, the logistics team was voted by all WFP workers around the world as the best team of the company for the level of commitment in achieving the goals of the WFP mission in saving lives and the change we bring to lives through our work," he said. he. The news that the World Food Program is this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize surprised everyone, he believes.
"I think we were all surprised and extremely happy. Personally, I thought the award should go to individuals, not organizations. What can I say, I couldn't believe that we received the Nobel Peace Prize and I felt happy and very proud that I was also part of that team that became a Nobel laureate, with my contribution for the last twenty years. I got the news here in Panama, early in the morning, at four o'clock local time, through a joint WhatsApp group from Aden as BBC Breaking News, while I was still in quarantine due to corona. It was also an emotional moment that brought the film back a little during the last twenty years that I have been working for WFP, in various crises, in so many countries. I immediately shared the news with those closest to me in Montenegro, the USA and Cuba," says Lončarević. It is estimated that there are around 700 million hungry people in the world. The Nobel committee said the coronavirus pandemic has increased that rate, prompting governments around the world to provide financial support to the World Food Program and other organizations.
"The epidemic has greatly impoverished the economy and the whole world, so unfortunately it is natural that there will be a bigger crisis and more hungry people. It has become very difficult to travel and get to destinations," Lončarević told "Vijesti" and added that even in the coronavirus crisis, WFP is the leading organization when it comes to the transportation of passengers and cargo related to the pandemic.
"Thus, thanks to our service, I managed to reach Panama after four days of transit from Podgorica via France, Mexico and Guatemala. WFP also provides logistics services to all other humanitarian organizations, as well as to various governments as, when and where needed".
Unexpectedly, the working day often ends late at night, there are also frequent working weekends... And everything he does, as he says, he does with the aim of helping the vulnerable.
"In principle, not only me, but all of us who work at WFP, dedicate our lives to help others so that millions of children and adults in the world can get out of their misfortune. For example, in Yemen, where there is currently the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world, we live in a building that is completely protected by iron bars and a double high fence. I would start the working day by going to the office, ordering transport (armored vehicle) and military escort, to visit the port of Aden, if we have ships unloading in the port, silos, if we have activities in the silos (processing wheat into flour) or visit our warehouses, where every day we load hundreds of trucks that transport humanitarian aid to various parts of South Yemen. With my team, I plan all those deliveries and meet with transporters, warehouse workers, labor and others to ensure that the aid arrives on time at the desired destination. Sometimes we visit some of the places, depending on the security situation, where food is distributed and we can see the difficult scenes of children and adults, who lost everything in that conflict and their only hope is to survive with our help".
"Food is our basic need and right. If we do not have access to a sufficient amount of safe and high-quality food for current and future generations, our health, development and basic rights will be violated", says the Council of Europe Resolution on food security.
In the same document, it is also stated that there is no shortage of food in the world, but that, despite this, the world is constantly facing food crises, "especially those whose creator is man".
"If we fail to address the governance issues, they will only increase. The Parliamentary Assembly considers food security one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. This challenge concerns all of us, and the problem can be solved with sufficient political and civil participation", reads the text of the Resolution, whose adoption at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2013 was supported by the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro. When asked if it is possible to improve the situation with food distribution in the world, in which some people throw food away, while others are hungry, Lončarević says that we are still far from that.
"I would like it to be possible and to experience it one day, but I am afraid that we are still far from that, mostly because of the conflicts and divisions that are constantly there. The big gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger every day, and the current pandemic is making that gap even bigger."
By way of illustration, he adds that in South Sudan and Yemen, where he has been for the last two years, the majority of the population lives in very difficult conditions, where they would not survive without the help of the World Food Program.
The Nobel Prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The prize includes a gold medal and 10 million crowns, or 1,1 million dollars. When asked how the WFP will use that money, Lončarević believes that it will be used for humanitarian purposes:
"Perhaps to buy food and distribute it to the most vulnerable population in the world".
He calls his family little Nobelists
Due to the nature of his work that takes him far from home, Lončarević looks forward to every opportunity to be in Montenegro and spend time with his family. Because of their support, he considers them "little Nobel laureates".
"In addition to my mother, brothers and sisters, my wife and our three sons give me great support in everything I do, and I constantly yearn to return to my hometown to share as much time as possible with them. Life is short and moves fast, especially when you are away from home most of the time, on various tasks. Unfortunately, most of the countries in which I have been engaged in the last period are countries in conflict with a high degree of risk, so it is not possible to bring family members. That's how they are also an integral part of this success and award, and that's how they became 'my Nobel laureates,'" he says.
While he was recently traveling from Podgorica to Panama, he received the news of his father's death... "I was not able to attend the funeral. He constantly accompanied, advised and supported me with daily calls to all my destinations in these twenty years. I miss those calls a little now. I remain extremely grateful to him for the success I achieved in WFP and in life in general". Last year, he used a short break to participate in the Podgorica Marathon, and he says that when he is at home, he likes to go fishing with his sons.
"And I also like to grow hot peppers, the hottest kind in the world, which I practice in whatever country I find myself in... The attention around them relaxes me a little after a hard day."
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