The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in Manila has named Singapore diplomat Tommy Koh, Bangladesh humanitarian Runa Khan and Myanmar rights defender Bo Kyi as the winners of the 68th Ramon Magsaysay Awards for 2026. The announcement was made on 31 August 2026, the 119th birth anniversary of former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay. With these three new names, the total number of laureates honoured since 1958 has risen to 359 individuals and organisations recognised for selfless service to Asia.
What Is the Ramon Magsaysay Award?
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual honour given to persons and organisations in Asia for outstanding service that improves lives and strengthens society. It is presented by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF), an independent non profit body based in Manila, Philippines. The Foundation states its mission as honouring greatness of spirit in selfless service to the people of Asia.
The award was created in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), a philanthropic body based in New York, with the agreement of the Philippine government. The first awards were presented on 31 August 1958 to five individuals from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Sri Lanka, along with one Philippine based organisation. Since then, the announcement has been traditionally made on 31 August, which is the birth anniversary of Ramon Magsaysay.
From 1958 to 2008, the award was given in six fixed fields. These were Government Service, Public Service, Community Leadership, Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, Peace and International Understanding, and Emergent Leadership. Since 2009, the Foundation stopped using fixed categories, except for Emergent Leadership. Emergent Leadership is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation and honours young persons aged 40 or below, or organisations less than 10 years old, doing exceptional work that is not yet widely known. Winners are chosen through a confidential nomination and review process by the Board of Trustees of RMAF.
Why Is It Called the Nobel Prize of Asia?
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often called the Nobel Prize of Asia. This is only a popular nickname used because of its prestige. It has no formal link with the Nobel Prizes given in Sweden and Norway.
The nickname has stayed because the selection is strict, the honour is open across Asia regardless of race, creed, sex or nationality, and many laureates have gone on to receive global recognition. The shared idea is simple. Both prizes celebrate work that serves humanity. While the Nobel Prizes cover the whole world, the Magsaysay Award focuses only on transformative work in Asia.
Meet the Three Winners of the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Awards
The Foundation selected one diplomat, one social entrepreneur and one human rights defender for 2026. Each represents a different field, but all three were recognised for long years of steady work that put public interest first.
| Winner | Country | Age in 2026 | Core Work Recognised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tommy Koh | Singapore | 88 | International diplomacy, rule of law and mentoring young leaders |
| Runa Khan | Bangladesh | 67 | Healthcare, education and climate support for the poorest through Friendship |
| Bo Kyi | Myanmar | 61 | Documentation and support for political prisoners through AAPP |
Tommy Koh of Singapore: Champion of Dialogue and the Law of the Sea
Tommy Koh Thong Bee, born on 12 November 1937 in Singapore, is a lawyer, professor and diplomat. He is Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and has served as Ambassador-at-Large at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1990. The Foundation honoured him for his firm faith in dialogue, the rule of law and international cooperation, and for shaping a new generation of advocates for justice and human dignity.
Koh is best known as President of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea from 1980 to 1982. This conference, with more than 150 participating countries, adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on 30 April 1982. UNCLOS is a global treaty that lays down rules for how countries can use oceans and seas. It is often described as the constitution for the oceans. It was opened for signature on 10 December 1982 in Montego Bay, Jamaica and came into force in 1994.
UNCLOS defines key sea areas in simple terms. The territorial sea extends up to 12 nautical miles from the coast, where the coastal country has sovereignty, subject to the right of innocent passage for foreign ships. The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extends up to 200 nautical miles, where the coastal country has special rights over fish, oil, gas and other resources. Beyond national limits lie the high seas, which are open to all countries. The treaty also creates systems for settling sea disputes, including the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg and the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Jamaica.
Koh’s other roles show the breadth of his career. He was Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York in two terms from 1968 to 1971 and from 1974 to 1984, Ambassador to the United States from 1984 to 1990, and Chairman of the Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Rio Earth Summit, from 1990 to 1992. He was also Singapore’s chief negotiator for the United States Singapore Free Trade Agreement and served as Singapore’s agent in two legal cases against Malaysia on land reclamation and on Pedra Branca island.
Runa Khan of Bangladesh: Healthcare and Hope for the Poorest
Runa Khan, born on 17 November 1958, is a social entrepreneur and founder and executive director of Friendship, a social purpose organisation based in Dhaka. She was honoured for her deep empathy for the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh, and for her courage, vision and staying power in building Friendship to serve them.
Khan began as a teacher for poor children in 1979. In 2002, she set up Friendship, starting with a single floating hospital. The first ship, the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital, was a river barge brought from France by French sailor Yves Marre and converted into a hospital with support from Unilever. Two more hospital ships soon joined the fleet, the Emirates Friendship Hospital in 2008 and the Rongdhonu Friendship Hospital in 2012, which was earlier the Rainbow Warrior II of Greenpeace.
Friendship works mainly in the chars, which are shifting river islands and sandbars of the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers in the north, and in the coastal belt of the Bay of Bengal in the south. These are areas where erosion, floods and displacement often cut people off from doctors, schools and jobs. Since 2017, Friendship has also worked in the Rohingya refugee camps in Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar. Today the organisation reaches more than 7.5 million people a year. It runs a three tier health system with seven hospital ships, two land based hospitals, hundreds of mobile clinics and community medics, along with schools that can be taken apart and moved when erosion threatens, solar home systems, mangrove planting and livelihood support for women through the slow fashion brand Friendship Colours of the Chars.
Khan is the 14th recipient from Bangladesh. Earlier laureates from the country include Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, and Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC. Her work had already earned global attention when Friendship won the Earthshot Prize in the Fix Our Climate category in November 2025, the first Bangladeshi organisation to receive that prize.
Bo Kyi of Myanmar: Voice for Political Prisoners
Bo Kyi, aged 61 in 2026, is a former political prisoner and joint secretary and co founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The Foundation recognised his life work as a steady pursuit of truth, accountability and justice, marked by moral courage and personal sacrifice.
As a final year student of Burmese literature at Rangoon Arts and Sciences University, Bo Kyi joined the pro democracy protests that peaked on 8 August 1988, known as the 8888 Uprising. He was arrested in March 1990 and was jailed twice, spending a total of seven years in detention. In prison he secretly taught himself English, writing on the floor with a brick piece and learning from a professor in the next cell. The military later tried to recruit him as an informer. He refused unless all political prisoners were freed and dialogue was held with National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was jailed again and was finally released in 1998.
In March 2000, after crossing into Mae Sot in Thailand, Bo Kyi and fellow former prisoners founded AAPP on the principle that as long as political prisoners exist, the country cannot be free. AAPP records cases of arrest and abuse, provides money, medical care and legal help to detainees and their families, and campaigns internationally for their release. Its records became especially important after the military coup of February 2021. The group reports that thousands of political prisoners remain in detention, with many more cases still being verified, while thousands have been released over the years. Bo Kyi is the fifth laureate from Myanmar, after figures such as physician Cynthia Maung, development worker Lahpai Seng Raw, social worker Kyaw Thu and journalist Swe Win.
What Do the Winners Receive?
Each winner receives a cash prize of $50,000, along with a certificate written in calligraphy and a medallion bearing the embossed right facing profile of Ramon Magsaysay. The cash amount has remained stable in recent editions, including the 2024 awards which also carried $50,000 for each of the five laureates.
The formal honour will be presented at the 68th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Presentation Ceremony on 15 November 2026 at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila. The ceremony is open to the public and will close a festival season that starts with the global announcement on 31 August and includes public lectures by the laureates during festival week in November.
Ramon Magsaysay: The President Behind the Prize
The award is named after Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay, the 7th President of the Philippines. He was born on 31 August 1907 in Iba, Zambales, to a blacksmith father and a schoolteacher mother. Before entering politics, he worked as an automobile mechanic and shop superintendent, served as a guerrilla leader in World War II, and was later elected as congressman for Zambales.
As Secretary of National Defense under President Elpidio Quirino from 1950 to 1953, he led an effective campaign against the communist led Hukbalahap rebellion. He resigned in February 1953, contested the presidential election as the candidate of the Nacionalista Party, and won. He served as President from 30 December 1953 until his death. He was known as the Champion of the Masses for his simple style, open door policy for ordinary citizens, and focus on land reform, rural welfare and clean administration.
Magsaysay died in a plane crash on Mount Manunggal in Cebu on 17 March 1957. He was 49. The year 2026 marks his 119th birth anniversary. The award was created later in 1957 to keep alive his example of integrity in governance, courage in service and practical idealism within a democratic society.
India and the Ramon Magsaysay Award
India has a long connection with the award. The very first award in 1958 went to Indian social reformer Vinoba Bhave for his Bhoodan Movement, in which he called on landowners to gift land voluntarily to the landless. Since then, more than 50 Indians and Indian based organisations have been honoured.
| Indian Laureate | Year | Work Remembered For |
|---|---|---|
| Vinoba Bhave | 1958 | Bhoodan or Land Gift Movement, Community Leadership |
| Mother Teresa | 1962 | Care for the poor and sick in Kolkata through Missionaries of Charity |
| Verghese Kurien | 1963 | White Revolution and dairy cooperatives through Amul |
| Jayaprakash Narayan | 1965 | Social reform and public service |
| Satyajit Ray | 1967 | Cinema and creative communication |
| M. S. Swaminathan | 1971 | Green Revolution and farm science |
| Kiran Bedi | 1994 | Prison and police reforms |
| Arvind Kejriwal | 2006 | Right to Information movement under Emergent Leadership |
| Ravi Kannan R. | 2023 | Cancer care for the poor in Assam through Cachar Cancer Hospital |
Mother Teresa, who lived and worked in India, later received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. M. S. Subbulakshmi, the noted Carnatic vocalist honoured in 1974, was the first Indian musician to receive the Magsaysay Award. No Indian is among the three winners in 2026, but the Indian list remains an important reference for understanding the range of fields the award covers, from farming and health to journalism, public service and community leadership.
Key Takeaways
- The 68th Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2026 were announced on 31 August 2026 by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in Manila.
- The three winners are Tommy Koh of Singapore, Runa Khan of Bangladesh and Bo Kyi of Myanmar, taking total laureates since 1958 to 359.
- Each winner receives a cash prize of $50,000, a certificate and a medallion with the profile of Ramon Magsaysay.
- Tommy Koh presided over the adoption of UNCLOS on 30 April 1982, which set the 12 nautical mile territorial sea and 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
- Runa Khan founded Friendship in 2002 and now reaches over 7.5 million people through hospital ships and climate resilient services in the chars.
- The award honours the memory of Ramon Magsaysay, 7th President of the Philippines (1953 to 1957), and was established in 1957 by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
