Bangladesh’s Runa Khan has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. She is the founder of the non‑governmental organisation Friendship.
Friendship began operations in 2002 by pioneering a hospital ship to serve some of the world’s most deprived and unaddressed communities living on the sandbar islands, or chars, in Bangladesh.
Since then, its programmes have expanded to include floating hospitals and universal access to healthcare, disaster relief, capacity building and economic development, climate resilience, education, inclusion and rights, as well as cultural preservation.
Alongside Runa Khan, two other individuals — Tommy Koh of Singapore and Bo Chi of Myanmar — have been named recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award this year.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation announced the names of the 2026 awardees in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on Monday. The announcement marks the beginning of the 68th edition of the award festival, with the formal presentation of honors scheduled for 15 November at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
The award is named after Ramon Magsaysay, the seventh president of the Philippines, who died in a tragic plane crash on 17 March 1957. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation was established later that year, and the prize was first conferred in 1958.
Magsaysay’s birthday falls on 31 August, and this year marks his 119th birth anniversary. Each year, the names of awardees are announced from Manila on his birthday.
The 2026 announcement marked the opening of the 68th Ramon Magsaysay Award Festival. The awards will be formally presented to the winners at the closing ceremony on 15 November at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
Until 2008, the prize was given annually in six categories — Government Service; Public Service; Community Leadership; Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts; Peace and International Understanding; and Emergent Leadership.
The “Emergent Leadership” category was introduced in 2000 with financial support from the Ford Foundation. Since 2009, however, the award has not been confined to specific categories except for emergent leadership.
