UPSC Prelims 2026 Q70: UN Agencies and the Nobel Peace Prize — Explained

Consider the following UN organisations/agencies:

1. World Food Programme

2. United Nations Children's Fund

3. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

4. International Labour Organisation

How many of the above has/have been awarded the Nobel Prize twice?

Answer: (a) 1

Statement-wise explanation

1: incorrect — The World Food Programme has won the Nobel Peace Prize once, in 2020. The citation was "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas". It is the most recent UN agency to win the prize, and that is probably why it is in the list.
2: incorrect — UNICEF has won the Nobel Peace Prize once, in 1965. It has not been awarded the prize since.
3: correct — The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) won the Nobel Peace Prize twice: the 1954 prize and the 1981 prize. The 1954 prize honoured its help to refugees after the Second World War. The 1981 prize honoured its work for refugees across Asia, Africa and Latin America despite many political difficulties. UNHCR describes itself as the only UN agency to win the prize twice.
4: incorrect — The International Labour Organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize once, in 1969. That was the ILO's 50th anniversary, since it was founded in 1919. It has not won the prize a second time.

How to eliminate

You cannot work this out by reasoning alone. You have to know the award years. All four bodies have won the Peace Prize at least once, so knowing that each one is a laureate does not help. The question turns on the word "twice". Winning the prize twice is very rare, so expect zero or one name to qualify, not three or four. The fact to remember is that UNHCR is the only UN agency to win twice (1954 and 1981). UNICEF won in 1965, the ILO in 1969 and the WFP in 2020. Do not confuse UNHCR with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC has won three times (1917, 1944, 1963), but it is not a UN body.

Know more

The UN family and the Nobel Peace Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has often honoured the UN system. Some prizes went to the UN as a whole, some to its agencies, and some to people who led it.

Year	Laureate	Why honoured (in brief)
1950	Ralph Bunche	UN mediator in Palestine
1954	UNHCR	Protecting refugees after the Second World War
1961	Dag Hammarskjöld	Second UN Secretary-General (prize given after his death)
1965	UNICEF	Child welfare across national boundaries
1969	ILO	Social justice; awarded in its 50th year
1981	UNHCR	Rights and repatriation of refugees
1988	UN Peacekeeping Forces	Reducing tensions in conflict zones
2001	United Nations and Kofi Annan	A better-organised, more peaceful world
2005	IAEA and Mohamed ElBaradei	Preventing military use of nuclear energy
2007	IPCC and Al Gore	Knowledge about man-made climate change
2020	World Food Programme	Fighting hunger as a tool for peace

Points to remember

UNHCR is the only UN agency to win twice. It was set up by the UN General Assembly in December 1950 and is based in Geneva.
The ILO (1919) is older than the UN. It joined the UN system as its first specialised agency in 1946. It has a tripartite structure: governments, employers and workers.
The IPCC is not a UN agency in the usual sense. It is a scientific body set up in 1988 by WMO and UNEP.
The OPCW (2013) works closely with the UN but is a separate organisation.
Multiple wins outside the UN: the ICRC has won three times (1917, 1944, 1963). The ICRC also shared the 1963 prize with the League of Red Cross Societies.

In the news

UNHCR completed 75 years in December 2025. In early 2026, Indian institutions signed new agreements with the WFP and UNICEF. This kept UN agencies in the news before the exam. The facts tested here are static, though.

NCERT Concepts to Revise

Statelessness: Protecting stateless people and refugees is UNHCR's core mandate. That mandate is what the Nobel Committee's citations for UNHCR refer to.