Two upcoming events are worth noting - the Development Marketplace and the Chicago Microfinance Conference.  Registration is open for both.  Here's a bit more detail:

Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program of the World Bank that funds creative, small-scale development projects that deliver results and have the potential to be expanded or replicated.  They are holding their annual event here in Washington on May 22 and 23 - I'll be there at least part of the time.  Register at EventBrite (free) by May 15.  Also, if you're in town on the 23rd, consider stopping by WRI to meet the NextBillion team and attend the IPEG May meeting that afternoon.

The 3rd Annual Chicago Microfinance Conference comes recommended by our friend David Satterthwaite over at MicroCapital.  Unlike other conferences, this event will focus on the road ahead - not what has worked in microfinance over the years, but rather what will need to happen to reach billions of people instead of the current (estimated) 100 million microfinance clients. 

Keynote speakers are SKS CEO Vikram Akula and CGAP head Elizabeth Littlefield.  Admission ranges from $25 to $65 depending on your affiliation, and I can vouch that it will be money well spent.

Also on the event front, the EMPEA/IFC 9th (!!!) Global Private Equity Conference starts today in DC.  My colleagues from New Ventures are attending, and they've promised to blog, so stay tuned.

Guest blogger James Dailey consults with Sevak Solutions and is CTO of Microfinance Clearinghouse.  He was founder of the Microfinance Open Source initiative while at Grameen Foundation. 

Pakistan is home to at least 160 million souls, many of them at the "base of the pyramid" and altogether a more complex and interesting place than that painted by the international media, which focusses on the threat of Terrorism.  These are some impressions: A ferris wheel a short distance from the centuries old fort in Lahore; a ski lift outside of Islamabad that is a way to see pretty views where middle class families go; traffic clogged streets with elaborately decorated hauling trucks and an exuberiance of local trading; women dressed in colorful materials and women in head-to-toe black; men in western slacks and those in more traditional garb with longish beards; dry-dry mountains and fields; and fertile Punjab (five rivers) lands.  It is not a major tourist destination, but it is a fascinating land and people, with eons of culture rubbing up against cosmopolitan sophistication.

The politics are also more complex.  In the few weeks I have been here, a growing controversy has been brewing over the - shall we say effective - dismissal of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, with the largest anti-government demonstrations in many  years.  Initially a constitutional issue, it has taken on more ominous political implications. 

Also, euphemistic "power management" or "load shedding" are scheduled power blackouts to deal with a 500MW electrical capacity shortfall, and this headed into the hottest period of the year when temperatures regularly exceed 105F (41C).  Here in Karachi, riots are expected, maybe even today, if the outages last more than a few hours, as power management is, again, a highly politicized issue.

Microfinance reaches over 1 million people in Pakistan, more than a drop in the bucket but far less than the need for financial services for the tens of millions who live below or slighly above the official poverty line.  My work here is directed at scaling up these microfinance providers utilizing the convergence of banking services and mobile phone carriers.  This is the exciting future, ubiquitous communications via mobile phones enabling entirely new service models, via banking agents, for a variety of financial services to...well, everyone not currently reached by banks.  The work, funded by USAID and executed by ShoreBank International, is also aimed at helping the earthquake victims of October 2005; massive devastation of lives and livelihoods, which is still strongly felt today.

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When I decided to write about BoP skills, I planned to center the discussion on a conversation I’d had with Yasmina Zaidman of the Acumen Fund. She was kind enough to chat with me a few months ago during an informational interview and gave me a great overview of critical BoP competencies. My plan hit a snag when I failed to locate the notes from our conversation. What else is new?

However, as often happens in life, I found them while looking for something else. To celebrate my good fortune, I am sharing that information via a mini-update. Some of the points have been addressed, but bear repeating. Others are new. Off we go…

At the BoP one must be able to build new markets, utilize operational skills, and design marketing strategies for areas lacking traditional distribution channels. Not surprisingly, this means that the “must have” skills are product design, distribution/supply chain management, marketing, pricing, and product financing. If you want to work for an outfit like the Acumen Fund, you’ll not only need consulting skills or investing experience and an understanding of development issues, but also a demonstrated commitment to the sector and changing the way development is done.

Let’s recap. Question: “What does the BoP need?” Answer: “Everything.”