At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has fractured global alliances and go-it-alone has turned ugly, some world leaders say Friday’s awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the U.N. World Food Program was a commitment to the belief that only a concerted effort can save humanity from further disaster.

Ahead of the announcement, some had speculated that the Nobel might go to a fellow United Nations body, the World Health Organization, which has promoted multilateralism in the face of criticism by President Donald Trump.

The Nobel Committee made it clear this year’s award was a plea for unity.

Alarmed by the apparent chaos, many world leaders used last month’s annual U.N. gathering to issue ringing calls for a return to the multilateralism that the world body has represented for 75 years.

“Solidarity is precisely needed now to address not only the pandemic, but other global tests of our time,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

That last part was a reminder that the WHO, in the midst of arguably the worst pandemic in a century, stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars per year if the U.S. follows on Trump’s intention to withdraw from it completely. The U.S. had been the health agency’s largest donor until Trump announced a halt to funding earlier this year.