Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Runa Khan has warned that Bangladesh is failing to keep pace with the climate crisis, with millions in remote and vulnerable communities still not receiving the support they need.
The founder and executive director of Friendship, who has spent nearly 25 years working with some of the country’s most climate-vulnerable communities, said billions of dollars in climate promises have yet to translate into meaningful support on the ground.
“There are promises, promises, promises, billions of dollars of promises, but we’re not getting it,” Khan said.
For people living in the chars and other vulnerable areas, she said, climate change is “not an inconvenience” but a matter of “life and death.”
Khan, whose organisation now directly serves 7.5 million people annually, received the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award after Friendship won the Earthshot Prize in 2025 for its integrated climate adaptation system.
She sees the latest recognition not simply as an honour, but as a responsibility.
Dhaka Tribune: What does the Ramon Magsaysay Award mean to you beyond the honour?
Runa Khan: Personally, of course, it is joy and happiness. But I feel happiness for the communities who allowed us to work with them for so many years. If they hadn’t allowed us to create that atmosphere, we couldn’t have worked.
It also belongs to everyone in the Friendship family, at home and abroad, who does so much. But it brings a big responsibility: we must ensure the organisation never goes down in quality, dependability, trust or how we operate.
You are the 14th Bangladeshi to receive the award. Does that bring an added responsibility?
Our commitment to Bangladesh must not waver. I hope what I have done for 25 years will continue -- for the organisation, its people and, most importantly, Bangladesh.
Internationally, I also hope people can use the models we have devised.
Are Friendship’s models already being considered abroad?
Yes. Indonesian and Malaysian organisations have approached us about our floating healthcare ships. Many places in Southeast Asia and Africa have started using the hospital-ship concept.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley also approached us at the Earthshot Prize about what they could take from our systems.
You cannot simply replicate a model. But you can learn from how we identify what people, the environment and biodiversity need, and then work holistically.
Friendship began with one floating hospital. What has remained constant through 25 years?
Continuity. We started with healthcare because these communities had very little. As their needs changed, we moved into livelihoods and education, giving people hope and opportunities to enter the mainstream.
Today, children from the chars dream of going to Dhaka and abroad, becoming global leaders and attending medical college. Our students’ results have consistently been better than the national average.
But one thing must remain constant: integrity, dignity, justice, quality and hope.
I never realised that when you do something so deeply, so constantly, incredible change can happen.
What is the greatest lesson the people of the chars have taught you?
Every life matters. Every life we touch, we have to leave with respect and dignity.
I tell our volunteers: never take more away from people than what you’re giving them. You may give someone a bag of rice and water, but if you throw it at them, you take away their dignity.
I learn from people in the chars every day. They can tell me where an embankment is going to break better than many people building that embankment. We don’t adequately use the wisdom they have.
Development organisations usually talk about success. Where has Friendship failed?
Failure comes when we don’t listen properly and cannot identify people’s needs.
I don’t want to work with donors who don’t respect people’s needs and simply want their own methods replicated. I want real impact. The tools we use to achieve it should never become the problem.
And I’m happy to be proven wrong. Once, our health program head insisted we needed birth attendants. I had doubts, but asked that they become entrepreneurs and earn their own money. They turned out to be extremely good.
Was there a moment that changed how you approached healthcare?
A child died of diarrhoea. I went to see the mother and asked why she hadn’t come to our clinic. She said she didn’t have Tk5 to cross by boat and reach our hospital.
I wanted to start clinics immediately. That eventually developed into our three-tier primary healthcare system.
After Friendship’s growth, have you become more distant from the communities?
Of course, there has been some distance because I can’t go as often. I used to spend 10 days every month in the chars.
The field is my first love. I want to spend more time with people and mothers.
Once I was sitting with a group of women. One woman had only two saris, yet she wanted to give me her new one because she thought mine was torn. This is what I have received, love.
Is Bangladesh keeping pace with the climate crisis facing these communities?
No. Bangladesh is not keeping pace with the current situation.
There are promises, promises, promises -- billions of dollars of promises -- but we’re not getting it.
Bangladesh does not yet have deep enough programming to ensure climate action reaches the people who need it most.
For the most vulnerable and distant communities, climate change, rain, storms or cyclones are not an inconvenience. It is life and death. Land goes away; homes go away.
Until government decisions truly connect them as part of this country, we must ensure that the services and support given to factories and rich people are also extended to these communities.
What should the government do differently?
We have to solve the country’s energy and industrial problems. We need more industries and more diversity.
But we cannot neglect millions of people.
The government is caught up in everyday problems, and the systems are geared towards what is immediately visible.
We need to ensure subsidies -- whether cash, oil, solar or other energy support -- also reach people in the chars. We need a much more holistic approach.
What is the biggest change you have seen among women?
Real change. They no longer dream only about child marriage. They know they have the capacity to earn.
Knowledge is power. Knowing where to go for healthcare is power. Money, even a little money, is power too.
The fact that they can live independently means they are no longer scared. These are the deep forms of power we have seen develop.
After 25 years, what lesson matters most to you?
Long-term change requires continuity. You cannot keep moving from one project to another.
You must act on small mistakes immediately. You cannot procrastinate. And you need justice, because justice brings respect.
Over time, if you maintain quality, the money will come. Whatever you do, you have to sustain it.
If you left Friendship tomorrow, what must it never lose?
Its values. Digitalization will come, the country may change, but Friendship must never forget integrity, justice, quality, hope and dignity.
Friendship should continue filling the gaps and working with those who don’t have everything.