Fatima Fertilizer has received significant international recognition by winning four major awards at The Drum Awards 2025 in London reflecting impactful purpose-led communication for the Salam Kissan campaign and the company’s strategic partnership with UNDP.

The Silver award won for ‘Sustainability & Climate Action – Leading Sustainable Change for Pakistan’ recognized Fatima Fertilizer’s partnership with UNDP. Fatima Fertilizer has become the first company in Pakistan to adopt the SDGs Impact Framework, a commitment under which the company has mapped 8 impact areas to 15 SDGs and 49 targets to deliver measurable, people-oriented sustainability outcomes.

Salam Kissan, a flagship campaign that pays tribute to the farmers of Pakistan, secured three awards: a Silver award for ‘User-Generated Content for Social Change (TikTok)’; a Silver award for ‘Social Media for Good’; and a Bronze award for ‘Cause-Led Influencer Campaign’. The success of the campaign was driven by meaningful communication and the brand’s commitment to driving real change in farmers’ lives.

Salam Kissan, over the past six years, has been transformed into a powerful movement, leveraging authentic voices and relatable stories. Sarsabz pioneered Pakistan’s first-ever Kissan Day on 18th December 2019, adding it to the national calendar, which has inspired many brands to follow in the celebration.

The award-winning User Generated Content initiative by Sarsabz invited audiences on TikTok to create content paying tribute to the unsung heroes of Pakistan using the Salam Kissan anthem. Hundreds of reels poured in from rural and urban communities, including farmers themselves, making it a nationwide expression of gratitude.

The influencer-led communication for the same campaign spanned multiple genres, encompassing fashion, lifestyle, food influencers and celebrities who paid tribute to farmers which the heartfelt gesture of a salute. Music influencers released their own renditions of the campaign anthem and comedy creators produced content that resonated with wider audiences, helping register the greater cause and making the tribute culturally engaging.

Rabel Sadozai, Director Marketing and Sales at Fatima Fertilizer, while expressing her pride in the achievement stated, “These awards are a testament to the power of purpose-led communication and the authenticity of our mission. Farmers are the backbone of Pakistan, and our campaigns aim not just to highlight their contributions but to give them the national recognition they deserve. Winning four global awards at The Drum 2025 (UK) reinforces our belief that meaningful storytelling, rooted in respect for the people who feed the nation, can inspire real change at home and admiration abroad.”

Continued global recognition for Fatima Fertilizer highlights its commitment to elevating the agricultural community of Pakistan, shaping positive narratives and leading sustainable change in the country.

Leading economists, policy-makers, and development practitioners from around the world convened at LUMS this week for the three-day G²LM|LIC/Path2Dev/BREAD Academic & Policy Conference on Development Economics, which highlighted cutting-edge research on the world’s most pressing development issues, with a focus on South Asia.

Climate and energy challenges were the main discussion points, with studies showing that high temperatures and prepaid electricity meters can reduce access for the poor. Employment and human capital discussions emphasized that better information sharing boosts female participation, while education and health remain transformative for inclusive societies. Flexible public sector incentives were flagged as key to improving service delivery outcomes. Research discussed the determinants of citizen support for progressive tax reform and the impact of frontier rule on sovereignty-contesting violence.

Organized jointly by the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries (G²LM|LIC) programme, the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), IZA Institute of Labor Economics, together with the Chaudhry Nazar Muhammad Department of Economics at the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre at LUMS, the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (IDS), the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS), the International Growth Centre (IGC), the Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR), and the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), the conference set out to bridge rigorous research and practical policy solutions.

The conference also featured a mentorship program, which brought junior researchers, particularly from South Asia, into dialogue with senior scholars. Panel discussions brought academics in conversation with policymakers, including Hamed Ateeq Sarwar (Member, IRS), Umme Laila Azhar (Chairperson, NCSW), Ahmed Khan (CEO, PSDF), among others, to find actionable pathways toward development.

Reflecting on the significance of these conversations, Maroof A. Syed, President and CEO of CERP, said, “By bringing together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, the conference affirms each year that policy debates must respond to realities on the ground in Pakistan and beyond. There is a high level of intersectionality between inequality, governance, gender, health and education especially in the context of climate change. Unless we address them together and align budgets with these priorities, inclusive development will remain out of reach.”

The Keynote Speaker, Dr. Imran Rasul, Professor, University College London, commenting on social insurance said that “It’s better to target firms rather than workers. Although workers are more exposed, their skills allow them to remain more resilient.” A Chaudhry Nazar Muhammad Distinguished Lecture was given by Dr. Sheheryar Banuri, Associate Professor, University of East Anglia, who brought a behavioural economics lens to understanding corruption and cited the importance of moving away from “intrinsic corruption” and instead factoring in the institutions, incentives, and communities that people work in.

The conference concluded with a shared commitment to evidence-based reforms in taxation, public service delivery, gender inclusion, and climate resilience, to ensure growth that is inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to those left behind.