Runa Khan

Runa Khan (born 17 November 1958) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, humanitarian, and author. She is the founder and executive director of Friendship, a social purpose organisation that delivers integrated healthcare, education, disaster response, and livelihood services to climate-affected and remote communities across Bangladesh . In November 2025, Friendship won The Earthshot Prize in the “Fix Our Climate” category — the first time a Bangladeshi organisation has received the award . In 2026, Khan received The Ramon Magsaysay Award for her decades of service to remote, river-eroded, and climate-vulnerable communities in Bangladesh .

Khan is known for an integrated model of development that treats health, education, disaster management, livelihoods, justice, and cultural preservation as interconnected rather than as separate problems to be solved one at a time the organisation has reached more than 75 million people, including some 7.5 million climate migrants it serves annually structured around what it describes as four interdependent commitments: saving lives, climate adaptation, poverty alleviation, and empowerment.

Khan is a member of the Club of Rome, country chair and a board member of Global Dignity, and a jury member for the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity . She was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1994, received the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2006, and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneur award in 2012, among other honours.

Before founding Friendship, Khan worked in tourism, textiles, and publishing the University of Munich, and the Collège de France, and is the author of eight books, including six works on early-childhood pedagogy and two collections of Bangladeshi folk tales .

Early Life and Education

Khan was born on 17 November 1958 into a Bengali family descended from the zamindars of Bengal . In a 2020 interview with Ashoka, she stated that her goal was never to build a large organisation, but to offer effective, direct assistance where it was needed — explaining that Friendship grew out of responding directly to what local communities said they required, rather than implementing a pre-set top-down programme

Dignity is a central theme in her public statements and philosophical framing. She has argued that while poverty is survivable, the erosion of human dignity and hope is destructive, positioning Friendship's healthcare, education, and livelihood interventions as mechanisms to restore agency and self-respect and opened the Friendship Centre training facility in Gaibandha — an innovative earth-integrated building that later won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Khan was named a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur in 2012 .

Institutional Growth (2017–2022)

From 2017, Friendship's Transition Fund Project operated alongside humanitarian relief and learning centres for Rohingya refugees. The organisation constructed a cyclone shelter in 2018, co-developed cyclone-resilient housing guidelines with the Housing and Building Research Institute and the Government of Bangladesh, and launched NODI Ltd., a social enterprise. In 2019, Khan launched Friendship Colours of the Chars, Bangladesh's first slow-fashion brand, selling sustainable textiles produced by female artisans in char and climate-affected regions . That year, Friendship initiated mangrove afforestation projects that grew into Bangladesh's largest private mangrove nursery, opened its first retail outlet, and founded Friendship Belgium. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Friendship delivered emergency relief, opened a primary healthcare centre on Bhashan Char, introduced career guidance services, launched its first centre for persons with disabilities, and opened a pop-up shop in Luxembourg. Today, Colours of the Chars operates three retail outlets (two in Dhaka, one in Luxembourg) and exports internationally .

Friendship marked its 20th anniversary in 2022, inaugurating its first cyclone-resilient house, earning the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Prize for the Friendship Hospital in Shyamnagar, and launching a mobile sports library in Rohingya camps in partnership with the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation .

Recent Activity (2023–2026)

Between 2023 and 2025, five new floating hospital ships joined Friendship's fleet with support from the Islamic Development Bank, alongside two solar-powered villages and two additional centers and disability-friendly boats for persons with disabilities. Students from Friendship's Connected Schools Programme represented their communities internationally: two girls attended the European Parliament and two attended COP28 in 2023, followed by four students at the European Parliament in 2025 .

On 11 September 2023, Khan hosted French President Emmanuel Macron aboard Friendship's traditional panshi boat, the Flèche d'Or — the largest of its kind and one of the last still afloat — during his official visit to Bangladesh ; the delegation, including climate scientist Saleemul Huq and French and Bangladeshi officials, cruised the Turag River . In November 2025, Friendship won The Earthshot Prize in the 'Fix Our Climate' category, the first Bangladeshi organisation to earn the honour .

Authorship

Khan has authored or co-authored several books, academic chapters, and articles on development, education, humanitarian aid, and climate resilience. Her literary works include two collections of Bangladeshi folk tales drawn from oral traditions: The Flower Maiden and Other Stories (2000) . She has also developed educational materials, including the Play School Activities Book series and Radiant Workbook series, COP25, Madrid — 'Climate Resilient Health: Urgent Need for Policy and Finance'

UN Ocean Conference, Nice; Summit, Paris ; The Economist fireside chat: 'The Role of Storytelling and Philanthropy in the Climate Crisis'

Awards and Recognition The following selected list includes major awards and formal recognitions conferred upon Runa Khan personally or upon Friendship NGO under her executive leadership:

Year Award / Recognition Details & Conferring Body Recipient 1990 Pedagogy Books Curriculum Adoption Teaching methodology incorporated into National Curriculum Framework Runa Khan 2006 Rolex Award for Enterprise For preserving Bangladesh's ancient wooden boatbuilding heritage Runa Khan 2012 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award World Economic Forum / Schwab Foundation Friendship NGO 2016 Green Award Positive Planet Foundation (expanding solar energy access) Friendship Volunteer 2022 IUCN Forest & Landscape Restoration Award Selected as 1 of 20 best-practice examples in Asia-Pacific Friendship NGO 2023 Superbrands Bangladesh Award Recognised in the NGO category (2023–24) Friendship NGO 2023 Renewable Energy Adoption Award ESG Business Awards (jointly with Standard Chartered Bank) Friendship NGO 2023 UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy Conferred by UNESCO for community literacy programmes Friendship NGO 2024 Reuters Global Energy Transition Award 'Projects of Impact' category for Summit-Friendship Solar Village Runa Khan 2026 The Ramon Magsaysay Award 68th Ramon Magsaysay Award Runa Khan