Runa Khan

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Runa Khan
Runa Khan.jpg
Born (1958-11-17) 17 November 1958 (age 66)
NationalityBangladeshi
OccupationSocial Entrepreneur
Known forFounder, Friendship (NGO)

Runa Khan is a social entrepreneur [1] , humanitarian, speaker and author. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Friendship NGO, [2] a social purpose organization that delivers integrated services to climate-affected and remote communities across Bangladesh.

Contents

Khan is recognized globally for her innovative model of holistic integrated development which addresses challenges across multiple sectors, including climate action, health, education, disaster management, justice, and economic development and also preserving the culture of communities [3] [4] , to bring about holistic change rather than focusing on a single area of need [5] . Established in 2002 [6] , Friendship has served over 75 million people thus far and has been bringing systemic changes in service delivery, empowerment, and livelihood to over 7.5 million climate migrants annually [7] , with the promise of Saving Lives [8] [9] [10] [11] , Climate Adaptation [12] [13] , Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment.

Khan is a member of the Club of Rome [14] , Honorary President of the One Sustainable Health (OSH) Forum Approach, [15] [16] Country Chair and Board Member of Global Dignity [17] [18] , and a jury member for the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity [19] . She is an Ashoka Fellow [20] (1994), Rolex Laureate [4] (2006) , recipient of the IDB Award for Women’s Contribution to Development [21] (2008), and winner of the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur Award [22] (2012), among other national and international recognitions.

Before founding Friendship, Khan co-founded Contic, a tourism company offering cruises on renovated traditional wooden boats, [23] [24] and established a boutique Mearee in Dhaka to support indigenous artisans and expand markets for ethnic crafts. Beyond her organizational work, she has been an invited speaker at national and international platforms [the 10000s pic], including INSEAD [25] [26] , the University of Munich, and the Collège de France, addressing themes such as social entrepreneurship, leadership, and value-based development. Khan is also the author of eight books, comprising six works on pedagogy [27] [28] [29] [30] and two collections of children’s stories [31] [32] .

Early life and education

Khan was born on November 17, 1958, into a Bengali family descended from the Zamindars of Bengal. [33] Her mother’s family traced its origins to the Karranis, the last dynasty of the 16th-century Bengal Sultanate. [34] She grew up in a culturally diverse household where her father, Alim Khan, often hosted global thinkers, musicians, Zen monks, Hindu priests, Taizé Brothers, and ambassadors, involving her in wide-ranging discussions on music and philosophy from an early age. [34]

Khan attended Farmview International School in then East Pakistan, then St. Denys High School in Murree. She earned a BA with Honours in Geography from Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata and did a second BA in humanities from the Eden Mohila College in Dhaka. [35] [36] In 2013, she attended the Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management programme at Harvard Business School, and in 2018 completed the Leadership for System Change programme at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Career in Development & Social Entrepreneurship

Early Career

In 1988, Khan started a boutique to provide work for Biharis and indigenous Bangladeshis, marking the beginning of her work in sustainable livelihoods for marginalised communities. [33] In 1992 she joined her family printing business. In 1995 she founded a security company. [33]

Friendship

In 2002, Runa Khan founded Friendship with Yves Marre as advisor with the prioneering Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital, a river barge converted to deliver medical services to remote riverine communities in Bangladesh with support from Unilever.

In 2003, the organization introduced satellite clinics to extend healthcare deeper into the communities of Kurigram and Gaibandha and integrated earlier activities on preserving Bangladesh’s 3000-yeard old heritage of wooden boat building.

In 2004, Friendship constructed its first elevated ground flood shelter (plinth) [10] and took part in national flood response; that year also saw the first national exhibition on the boats of Bengal.

The organisation began a Farmer and Fisherman Training Program in 2005 to create sustainable livelihoods for those receiving healthcare services. In 2006, in response to the demand for education in the Chars (river islands), Friendship developed an innovative model for primary schools that trained local community members to educate children in their villages, and created Friendship Community MedicAids (FCMs) to deliver healthcare directly to households.

That same year, Khan received the Rolex Award for Enterprise for her work on preserving Bangladesh’s wooden boat-making heritage, and Friendship International was founded with Friendship Luxembourg as its first entity.

In 2007, Friendship participated in disaster response following Cyclone Sidr, opened women-only adult literacy centres, and established Friendship Netherlands. The second hospital ship, Emirates Friendship Hospital, supported by the Emirates Foundation joined the fleet in 2008, and the first international exhibition on the boats of Bengal was held in Paris. In 2008, Khan won the IDB Prize for Women’s Contribution to Development.

In 2009, Friendship introduced solar home systems to the Chars and responded to Cyclone Aila. In 2010, vocational training centres for weaving and tailoring were launched.

In 2011, Friendship developed an mHealth app to support FCMs, saw its first primary school cohort graduate, facilitated debt relief for fishermen in the southern coastal belt, commencement of cervical cancer screenings in communities, [37] and opened the Friendship Centre training facility, which later won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture [38] . Runa Khan was awarded as a Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation in 2012 at the “Meeting of New Champions” in Tianjin.

The third hospital ship, Rongdhonu Friendship Hospital, began operations in 2012, and the Good Governance Program was launched. In 2013, water treatment plants were installed in the southern coastal belt of Bangladesh to address salinity and static clinics were established.

By 2014, Friendship had introduced legal information booths and paralegal services. In 2015, Char Theatres—community performances addressing social issues—were launched, along with community-initiated disaster risk reduction activities and junior secondary schools. That year also saw the founding of Friendship France. In 2016, she was awarded the Green Award by Positive Planet. [39]

In 2017, the organisation began the Transition Fund Project and humanitarian support for Rohingya refugees, including learning centres. In 2018, a cyclone shelter was built, cyclone-resilient housing guidelines were co-developed with HBRI and the Government of Bangladesh, and the NODI Ltd. social enterprise was launched.

2019 she started the lifestyle brand Friendship Colours of the Chars, Bangladesh's first slow fashion brand, featuring sustainable products made by women primarily in char and other climate-affected communities. Mangrove afforestation efforts began in 2019 as well with Friendship soon having the largest private mangrove nursery in Bangladesh, alongside the first Colours of the Chars outlet and the establishment of Friendship Belgium.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Friendship provided emergency response and opened a primary healthcare centre in Bhashan Char, introduced career guidance services, launched the first Persons with Disabilities Centre, and opened a Colours of the Chars pop-up shop in Luxembourg. FCOC now has 3 retail outlets—1 in Luxembourg and 2 in Dhaka—and exports products to France, New Zealand and the USA. [40] [41] An interview of Runa Khan was published by Harvard Business School in 2019 as part of a series of conversations with Harvard faculty titled Creating Emerging Markets. [42]

In 2022, the organisation marked its 20th anniversary, inaugurated its first cyclone-resilient house, received the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award for the best new building in the world, and, in partnership with the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation, launched the first mobile sports library in Rohingya camps.

From 2023-2025, five new floating hospital ships joined the fleet with support from the Islamic Development Bank, two solar villages were built, and two more disability centres and two disability-friendly boats were introduced. Students from the Connected Schools Program participated internationally—two girls at the European Parliamen t and two at COP28 in 2023, followed by four students (two girls and two boys) at the European Parliament in 2024–2025.

On September 11, 2023 Runa Khan hosted the French president, Emmanuel Macron on Friendship's traditional panshi boat, the Flèche d'Or, the largest and one of the last of its kind, during an official visit to the country. [43] They were accompanied by climate scientist Saleemul Huq, high-ranking government officials of Bangladesh and France, and young climate activists on the boat trip, which cruised the Turag River. [44]

Authorship

Runa Khan has authored and co-authored a number of books, articles, and chapters on development, education, humanitarian aid, and climate resilience.

Her literary works include two collections of Bangladeshi folk tales: The Flower Maiden and Other Stories [32] (2000, ISBN 984 05 1511 X) and Rani Kanchan Mala and Other Stories [31] (2000, ISBN 984 05 1482 2), both later published by The University Press Limited based on traditional Bangladeshi folk tales, including some from Thakurmar Jhuli.

Of the book chapters, the most notable is Beyond the North-South Dichotomy, a chapter in Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development, published by Routledge in 2023.

She has also developed several educational resources: the Play School Activities Book series [29] [30] (Books 1–2), the Radiant Workbook series [27] [28] (Books 1–4) on practical teaching methodology, and two further books of teaching methods for teachers and children.

Speaking Engagements

Khan has been an active voice at major international climate platforms. She has spoken at side events and pavilions during COP26, COP27, COP28, and COP29, and in 2025 addressed the UN Oceans Conference in Nice, the ChangeNOW Summit in Paris, and The Economist ’s fireside chat “The Role of Storytelling and Philanthropy in the Climate Crisis.” In 2024, she spoke at SB60 in Bonn, Germany, and the Global Forum on Migration & Development, while in 2019 she participated in COP25 in Madrid, presenting on “Climate Resilient Health – Urgent Need for Policy and Finance.” Earlier, she was a panelist on “Innovative Climate Change Programming in Asia” at the Asian Philanthropy and Climate Change Forum in Hong Kong (2010) and chaired the International Level Sharing Meeting on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Dhaka (2011).

Her humanitarian and migration-related speaking roles include the International Dialogue on Migration (IOM) keynote in 2021, the Joint Response Plan Launch Event for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis (UNHCR) in 2021, and the Learning Planet Festival in Paris (2024). She has participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos in both 2015 and 2020, and spoke at the National Humanitarian Conference in France in 2020.

In the fields of leadership, social innovation, and development, Khan has addressed audiences at Sciences Po (2017), the Paperjam 10x6 Conference on Female Leadership in Luxembourg (2019), the Swiss Architecture Museum’s Bengal Stream exhibition in Basel (2018), the Asia Pacific Medical Devices Leadership Dialogue in Bangkok (2018), and the Printemps Solidaire Rally-Concert in Paris (2017). She has delivered keynote talks at World CSR Day in Mumbai (2016), the Convergences World Forum in Paris (2015), the ADB Transport Forum in the Philippines (2014), and the Impact Forum in Singapore (2013). Academic invitations include a guest lecture at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (2021), and TEDx Luxembourg City (2012).

She has also participated in numerous conferences on social entrepreneurship and NGO work, including the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Conferences (2009, 2012), the Planetworkshops Global Conference in Evian (2012), and a CIHR-sponsored research planning meeting in Toronto (2012). In 2011, her speaking engagements included “Celebrating Social Entrepreneurship” at Delhi Technological University, the ALFI Microfinance Conference in Luxembourg, EHP Philanthropy in Luxembourg, the IHAN/ISEP Joint Satellite Workshop in Berlin, and the IAVE World Volunteer Conference in Singapore. Other forums have included ThinkFest at the Singapore Management University (2010), AMCHAM’s CSR event in Luxembourg (2010), and multiple microfinance and corporate social responsibility talks in Europe and Asia.

References

  1. ↑ Khan, Maliha (14 July 2017). "Can business and social change be compatible?". The Daily Star. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Brinded, Lianna (27 January 2016). "This social entrepreneur told us why businesses should see charities as service providers". Business Insider. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  3. ↑ Strauss, Gary (17 November 2016). "Anchoring Bangladesh's Ancient Boatbuilding Technology". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Rolex Awards for Enterprise". Rolex Awards for Enterprise : Runa Khan : Overview. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "New models of working and partnership in development: the example of Friendship, a Bangladeshi organisation". ALTERNATIVES HUMANITAIRES. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  6. ↑ "Discover | Stories | Lifebuoy turns 130 | Unilever Archives". archives-unilever.com. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  7. ↑ Staff Correspondent (12 February 2023). "Friendship receives Superbrands award". Prothomalo. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  8. ↑ Karim, Naimul (22 May 2019). "In climate change-hit Bangladesh, hospital boats keep healthcare afloat". Reuters. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  9. ↑ Warren, Katherine (22 March 2013). "Floating Health Care: Runa Khan has a Simple Solution to Bangladeshi Development". Huffington Post. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  10. 1 2 Begum, Thaslima (4 May 2023). "'Peace of mind at last': the Bangladeshi villagers digging their way out of the floods". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  11. ↑ Sajib, Md Refat Uz Zaman; Hasan, Kamrul (14 April 2025). "Reaching the unreachable: a mixed-method evaluation of multidimensional healthcare model addressing the healthcare service gaps in hard-to-reach Northern riverine Bangladesh". Archives of Public Health 103 (2025) – via Springer Nature.
  12. ↑ Begum, Thaslima (4 May 2023). "'Peace of mind at last': the Bangladeshi villagers digging their way out of the floods". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  13. ↑ valerie (9 December 2021). "Friendship NGO at the forefront of the fight against climate change". MMM. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  14. ↑ "Khan, Runa". Club of Rome. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  15. ↑ "OSH Forum". One Sustainable Health. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  16. ↑ Gardette, Sophie (10 September 2021). "Interview with Runa Khan, founder of the NGO Friendship and honorary president of the "One Sustainable Health Forum"". Initiatives pour l'Avenir des Grands Fleuves. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  17. ↑ "Board of Directors". Global Dignity. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  18. ↑ "Bangladesh | Global Dignity". Global Dignity. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  19. ↑ "Jury". Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  20. ↑ "Runa Khan: Ashoka Fellow". Ashoka. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  21. ↑ Celebrating Women's Success: IDB Prize for Women's Contribution to Development. Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Islamic Development Bank. pp. 28–29.
  22. ↑ "All awardees". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  23. ↑ "Call of the rivers". The Daily Star. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  24. ↑ "Explore Bangladesh on authentic wooden boats". www.contic.net. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  25. ↑ INSEAD (2 August 2012). Social entrepreneur Runa Khan on helping Bangladesh's poor . Retrieved 15 August 2025– via YouTube.
  26. ↑ Bray, Nicholas (25 October 2011). "From poverty to entrepreneurship". INSEAD Knowledge. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  27. 1 2 Khan, Runa. Play School Workbook 1st step. University Press Limited. ISBN   9789848815830.
  28. 1 2 Khan, Runa. Play School Workbook 4th step. University Press Limited. ISBN   9789848815861.
  29. 1 2 Khan, Runa. Early Learning Series Book 2. University Press Limited. ISBN   9789848815984.
  30. 1 2 Khan, Runa. Early Learning Series Book 1. University Press Limited. ISBN   9789848815908.
  31. 1 2 Khan, Runa. Rani Kanchan Mala and Other Stories: Fairy Tales from Bangladesh. The University Press Limited. ISBN   9789840514823.
  32. 1 2 Khan, Runa. The Flower Maiden and Other Stories: Fairy Tales from Bangladesh. ISBN   984051511X.
  33. 1 2 3 "'People can live with poverty, but they cannot live without dignity and hope'". Dhaka Tribune. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  34. 1 2 Defranoux, Laurence (26 December 2019). "Runa Khan, elle a bons fonds". Libération (in French). Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  35. ↑ "'People can live with poverty, but they cannot live without dignity and hope'". Dhaka Tribune. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  36. ↑ "Runa Khan: Ashoka Fellow". Ashoka. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  37. ↑ Begum, Thaslima (13 April 2023). "'Time we put an end to it': the Bangladeshi women fighting their silent killer". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  38. ↑ "Friendship Centre". Aga Khan Development Network. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  39. ↑ "Positive Planet: un monde meilleur pour les générations futures – Pluton Magazine" (in French). Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  40. ↑ "Friendship Colours: Beauty and skills from the Chars". The Business Standard. 6 December 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  41. ↑ Iqbal, Maisha Tarannum (27 November 2022). "A Night of Traditions: Fashion show by Friendship Colours of the Chars". The Daily Star. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  42. ↑ "Runa Khan - Creating Emerging Markets - Harvard Business School". www.hbs.edu. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  43. ↑ Report, Star Digital (11 September 2023). "Macron goes on Turag river cruise". The Daily Star. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  44. ↑ Huq, Saleemul (13 September 2023). "Macron's support for an 'adaptation pact' with Bangladesh". The Daily Star. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
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