rob zinn a research analyst and a social fellow at brookings with our center for technology innovation. so with that i will turn it over to robin. >> good morning. thank you to darryl for those remarks. and our sincere thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. either here at brookings or via live'llstream. we are very grateful for your interest in the project, and i'm looking forward to providing a brief overview of our approach and key findings before we turn it over to the panel discussion. so first i'd like to start with a brief overview of our project. the financial and digital inclusion project was launched in the summer of 2014. the purpose of the project is to provide policy makers, private sector representatives, non-governmental organizations and the general public with information that can help improve financial inclusion in the focus countries and around the world. but why does financial inclusion matter? at the individual level financial inclusion matters because it provides pathways for people to improve their financial health, which contributes to their overall we