Karachi
13 February 2026
The first of the two flagship events — the programme, in person, in front of the people it needed.
Badar Ul Islam, National Programme Coordinator for UNIDO in Pakistan, and his team represented UNIDO in the room.
← All workThe United Nations
UNIDO · United Nations · EU-funded · PAIDAR
The United Nations
needed Pakistan’s
ecosystem
in the room. — UNIDO PAIDAR — mobilising Pakistan’s ecosystem for a UN, EU-funded programme. Head of Outreach & Ecosystem Engagement — UNIDO PAIDAR Programme (via Digitara), December 2025 – April 2026.
Ali Ahmed was Head of Outreach & Ecosystem Engagement for PAIDAR — a UNIDO programme funded by the European Union. Engaged through Digitara, UNIDO’s contracted outreach partner, he worked with the UNIDO team to mobilise Pakistan’s startup and SME ecosystem — and convened two flagship founder events, in Karachi and Lahore.
Ali Ahmed worked with the UNIDO team on PAIDAR — a United Nations (UNIDO) programme funded by the European Union — as Head of Outreach & Ecosystem Engagement, engaged through Digitara, UNIDO’s contracted outreach partner. He mobilised Pakistan’s startup and SME ecosystem: running engagement sessions with national incubation hubs and convening two flagship founder events in Karachi and Lahore, where the ecosystem met the UNIDO programme team alongside panels of Pakistan’s leading founders. He worked across Pakistan, December 2025 – April 2026.
Ali Ahmed
Head of Outreach & Ecosystem Engagement · via Digitara
December 2025 – April 2026 · Concluded
The programme
PAIDAR
- In full
- Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development Across Rural Sindh
- Implemented by
- UNIDO — a specialized agency of the United Nations
- Funded by
- The European Union
- In partnership with
- The Government of Sindh
- Programme term
- 2022 – 2027 · five years
Ali’s engagement ran December 2025 – April 2026 — the outreach phase that brought Pakistan’s founders to the programme’s Social Entrepreneurship Grant Window.
- UNIDO
- the United Nations’ industrial-development agency
- European Union
- the programme’s funder
- PAIDAR
- the programme Ali ran outreach for
- Pakistan
- nationwide founder & SME engagement
01 / The programme
A United Nations programme,
funded by the European Union.
PAIDAR — Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development Across Rural Sindh — is a five-year programme (2022–2027) implemented by UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and funded by the European Union, in partnership with the Government of Sindh’s poverty-reduction strategy.
Under it, UNIDO opened a Social Entrepreneurship Grant Window — matching grants for the startups, SMEs and social enterprises capable of delivering against the programme’s development mandate. Reaching those enterprises, across Pakistan, is where Ali Ahmed came in.
The Social Entrepreneurship Grant Window
€11,000–€200,000
The grant range available to a single enterprise.
- Instrument
- Matching grant
- Not a loan. Not equity. The enterprise co-invests alongside the programme.
- Co-financing
- Up to 50%
- Rising to 70% for women-led, persons-with-disability-led and transgender-led enterprises.
- Who it was for
- Startups, SMEs & social enterprises
- Enterprises that could build and deliver against the programme’s development mandate.
Eligible sectors
- Health
- Education
- Clean energy
- WASH
- Waste management
- Agriculture
- Communal infrastructure
- Implemented by
- UNIDO — the United Nations Industrial Development Organization
- Funded by
- The European Union
- In partnership with
- The Government of Sindh’s poverty-reduction strategy
02 / The mandate
Bring Pakistan’s ecosystem
to the programme.
A United Nations programme needed Pakistan’s founders and SMEs — the people who could actually build and deliver — to know the grant window existed, and to be at the table before it opened. That was the mandate: reach the ecosystem, and bring it to the programme.
Ali Ahmed was engaged as Head of Outreach & Ecosystem Engagement through Digitara — UNIDO’s contracted outreach and engagement partner — and worked with the UNIDO team on the programme, across Pakistan, from December 2025 to April 2026.
- Reach the hubs
- Ecosystem-engagement sessions with Pakistan’s national incubation hubs — CMACED and NIC Karachi — to reach founders and SMEs across the country.
- Convene the rooms
- Two flagship founder events, in Karachi and Lahore, where Pakistan’s founders met the UNIDO programme team in person.
- Curate the panels
- Bringing respected Pakistani founders and leaders onto the stage — the people the ecosystem turns out for.
- Hold the front door
- Serving as the programme’s outreach point of contact for the founder ecosystem throughout the engagement.
01
02
03
04
Ali Ahmed’s mandate on the UNIDO PAIDAR programme was to mobilise Pakistan’s startup and SME ecosystem for the Social Entrepreneurship Grant Window. He ran ecosystem-engagement sessions with national incubation hubs — CMACED, the entrepreneurship centre at Superior University in Lahore, and the Ignite-funded National Incubation Center (NIC) in Karachi — and convened two flagship founder events, in Karachi on 13 February 2026 and Lahore on 18 February 2026. He was engaged through Digitara, UNIDO’s contracted outreach partner, and worked with the UNIDO team; he was not employed by UNIDO or the United Nations.
03 / The rooms
Where the ecosystem met the UN team.
Outreach becomes real in a room. Two flagship founder events, five days apart, put Pakistan’s founders in front of the UNIDO programme team in person — the point at which a grant window stops being a document and becomes a conversation.
Lahore
18 February 2026
The second room, five days later — opened by a keynote from a member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel.
The UNIDO programme team was present.
Who filled the rooms
Pakistan’s founders and CEOs — the operating end of the ecosystem, across six sectors the programme was built to reach.
- Healthtech
- Edtech
- Fintech
- Clean energy
- Agritech
- Manufacturing
04 / The people
The leaders Ali convened.
An outreach mandate is only as strong as who answers it. These are the founders and leaders who took the stage at the two events — a measure of the network behind the invitation.
Keynote & panelist · Lahore
Fiza Farhan
CEO, ORA Global
- Member, UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment
- Two-time Forbes 30 Under 30
- Delivered the keynote and joined the panel at the Lahore founder event
Lahore18 February 2026
Omar Farooq Malik
CEO, Interwood Mobel
Faizan Aslam
Founder, Bookme.pk
Badar Khushnood
Co-founder, Bramerz & Fishry
Formerly Google, Twitter and Facebook in Pakistan · former Chairman, P@SHA
Karachi13 February 2026
Dr Sara Saeed
CEO, Sehat Kahani
Dr Farhan Essa Abdullah
CEO & Chairman, Dr Essa Laboratory
Named panelists appeared publicly at these events. Their presence is a measure of the room Ali convened for the programme — it is not an endorsement of him or of this record.
05 / Why it matters
Institutions —
not only companies.
The authority in this chapter is the relationship. Ali Ahmed worked with the UNIDO team on a United Nations, EU-funded programme — trusted, through Digitara, to reach and convene Pakistan’s founder ecosystem for it. To operate alongside a UN team on a national programme, and to put Pakistan’s most respected founders in the room with them, is a credential that speaks for itself.
Set beside the CIRCLE × Gates Foundation and GIZ chapters, it makes one thing plain: this is a record built with international institutions, not only with companies. He is the ecosystem operator an international programme relies on to mobilise Pakistan’s founders.
- The United Nations
- UNIDO implemented PAIDAR. Ali worked with its team on the programme’s outreach.
- The European Union
- The programme’s funder — PAIDAR is an EU-funded development programme.
- The Gates Foundation
- Funded the CIRCLE digital-literacy programme Ali delivered end to end.
- Read the CIRCLE chapter
- The German federal government
- GIZ contracted Ali on its Pakistan–Germany safe-migration programme.
- Read the GIZ chapter
06 / Questions
Questions, answered.
What is UNIDO?
UNIDO — the United Nations Industrial Development Organization — is a specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes inclusive and sustainable industrial development. It is headquartered in Vienna, was established in 1966 and became a UN specialized agency in 1985, and has 173 member states.
What is the PAIDAR programme?
PAIDAR — Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development Across Rural Sindh — is a five-year programme implemented by UNIDO and funded by the European Union. It runs a Social Entrepreneurship Grant Window offering matching grants of €11,000–€200,000 (not loans, not equity) to startups, SMEs and social enterprises, with up to 50% co-financing, rising to 70% for women-led, PWD-led and transgender-led enterprises.
What was Ali Ahmed’s role on PAIDAR?
He was Head of Outreach & Ecosystem Engagement for the PAIDAR programme (December 2025 – April 2026), working with the UNIDO team to mobilise Pakistan’s startup and SME ecosystem — running engagement sessions with national incubation hubs and convening founder events in Karachi and Lahore where the ecosystem met the UNIDO programme team.
Did Ali Ahmed work for the United Nations or UNIDO?
He was engaged through Digitara — UNIDO’s contracted outreach and engagement partner — and worked with the UNIDO team on the programme. He was not employed by UNIDO or the United Nations. The accurate framing is that he was the person brought in to run the programme’s outreach, working alongside the UN team.
Who did Ali Ahmed convene at the events?
In Lahore, Fiza Farhan (CEO, ORA Global; UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment; Forbes 30 Under 30) keynoted and joined a panel with Omar Farooq Malik (Interwood Mobel), Faizan Aslam (Bookme.pk) and Badar Khushnood (Bramerz/Fishry; former P@SHA Chairman). In Karachi, the panel featured Dr Sara Saeed (Sehat Kahani) and Dr Farhan Essa Abdullah (Dr Essa Lab). UNIDO’s National Programme Coordinator, Badar Ul Islam, and the UNIDO team were present.
How does this connect to Ali Ahmed’s other work?
It is the United-Nations half of his institutional record. Alongside the CIRCLE × Gates Foundation chapter and the GIZ chapter, it shows Ali has operated with international agencies and governments — the UN, the EU, the Gates Foundation and the German federal government — as the ecosystem operator who can mobilise Pakistan’s founders for an institutional mission.