Ramon Magsaysay Award

About Ramon Magsaysay Award

• It is award to honour individuals and organisations for selfless service and contributions.
• Establish year: It was established in 1957 to honour the legacy of Ramon Magsaysay, the seventh President of the Philippines.
  • He is remembered for his integrity and leadership.
• First presented: It was first presented in 1958.
• It it is widely regarded as Asia’s highest honour and is often called the “Asian Nobel Prize.”
• Frequency of award: The award is conferred every year on August 31, Magsaysay’s birth anniversary, in Manila, Philippines.
• Award Categories
  • 1958–2008: Given in six categories –Government Service, Public Service, Community Leadership, Journalism, Literature & Creative Communication Arts, Peace & International Understanding
  • Emergent Leadership (introduced in 2000 with Ford Foundation support)
  • Since 2009: Fixed categories was discontinued, except Emergent Leadership.
• Selection: Selections are now based on overall merit of leadership and service.
• Prizes: Each awardee is honoured with a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize.
• About 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award Winners:
  • Tommy Koh– He is a diplomat and legal scholar. He is from Singapore.
    • He is an Ambassador-at-large who has held this position at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1990.
    • He played an important role in the talks that led to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS. 
    • He has also been involved in education, public policy, the arts and civic institutions.
  • Runa Khan- She is social entrepreneur and from Bangladesh.
    • She founded a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Friendship which works mainly with people living in some of Bangladesh’s hardest-to-reach areas, known as char communities.
    •  She took the initiative to establish Friendship in Luxembourg in 2006, Netherlands in 2007, the UK in 2010, France in 2015, and Belgium in 2018.
  • Bo Kyi- He is human rights activist from Myanmar. 
    • He has spent years working for the rights of political prisoners in Myanmar.
    • He was imprisoned twice and spent a total of seven years behind bars.
    • In 2000, he co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) which helps political prisoners and their families and records cases of human rights abuses.