Runa Khan Joins Bangladesh’s Legacy of Magsaysay Laureates
Runa Khan, founder and executive director of Friendship, has received the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award for her work with remote, river-eroded and climate-vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. Her recognition places her among a distinguished group of Bangladeshi Magsaysay laureates whose work has addressed poverty, healthcare, education, community development and social inclusion.
In a Nutshell
- Friendship founder and executive director Runa Khan has been named a 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient for more than two decades of work with marginalised and climate-vulnerable communities in Bangladesh.
- Friendship is a Bangladesh-based development organisation that provides healthcare, education, climate resilience, livelihoods and other essential services to marginalised communities, particularly those living in remote and river-eroded areas.
- Friendship is a Bangladesh-based development organisation that provides healthcare, education, climate resilience, livelihoods and other essential services to marginalised communities, particularly those living in remote and river-eroded areas.
- She shares the 2026 award with Singaporean diplomat and scholar Tommy Koh and Myanmar human rights activist Bo Kyi, and the award will be presented in Manila on November 15.
Context
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, established in 1957 in memory of former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay, recognises what its foundation describes as “greatness of spirit” and transformative leadership in Asia. The first awards were presented in 1958.
The foundation’s citation describes Runa Khan as a humanitarian innovator who sought to bring essential services to communities beyond the reach of conventional development programmes. It specifically highlights her approach to turning privilege into responsibility and creating opportunities for people to live with dignity and hope.
Why It Matters
Runa Khan’s award is significant because it addresses development challenges faced by communities that conventional systems struggle to reach. Her approach is based on delivering essential services directly to people living in geographically isolated and climate-vulnerable areas, rather than expecting them to overcome those barriers themselves. Friendship’s hospital ship is an early example of this approach, adapting the delivery of healthcare to the geography of the Jamuna’s river-eroded chars.
She joins figures such as Taherunnessa Abdullah, BRAC founder Fazle Hasan Abed, Muhammad Yunus, and public health activist Zafrullah Chowdhury. Abed received the award in 1980 for his community leadership and work on locally grounded solutions for rural Bangladesh, while Yunus was recognised in 1984 for enabling poor rural communities through group-managed credit. Zafrullah Chowdhury received the award in 1985 for his contribution to rural healthcare and Bangladesh’s drug policy.
What We Think
Runa Khan’s Ramon Magsaysay Award feels less like the beginning of recognition for her work than a recognition that arrives after a long record of it.
Friendship began its work in 2002, and its original model was built around an easy-to-overlook problem: people living on constantly shifting river islands could not depend on conventional, land-based services.