NYC VIBE was on hand when UN Women and SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software, announced a collaboration to accelerate industry-wide change and remove the barriers to the advancement of women and girls in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

UN Women and SAP aim to foster partnerships across the private sector, academic and non-profit organizations to accelerate change and enable women and girls to design, shape and benefit from the technological transformations and innovations as next generation digital innovators.

“The collaboration between UN Women and SAP will focus on advancing public-private partnerships; strengthening industry wide engagement in innovations that accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment; sharing leading practices, methodologies and solutions across innovation, technology and entrepreneurship; and promoting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” says UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director, Yannick Glemarec.

The collaboration was inaugurated on September 14, 2017 with the first UN Women Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Industry Forum at the SAP Leonardo Center New York supported by SAP Next-Gen. The forum is a one-day global conference which will bring together CEO’s, social entrepreneurs, innovators and thought leaders, including Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed; UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka; Alicia Tillman Chief Marketing Officer, SAP SE; Nate Hurst, HP Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer; Meredith Walker, Founder Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls; Christyl Johnson, NASA Deputy Director for Technology and Research Investments; Rachel Roy, Founder of the fashion brand Rachel Roy; and Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chief Brand Officer & Co-founder Foodstirs, among others to share how innovation, technology and entrepreneurship can be used to advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment around the world.

“SAP shares UN Women’s commitment to ensuring women and girls are fully empowered to capitalize on the 21st century innovation economy,” said Jennifer Morgan, SAP Executive Board Member for Global Customer Operations. “Closing the STEM skills gap for the next wave of female tech leaders and entrepreneurs will be essential to bolstering economic growth and further unlocking technology’s capacity for social good. We applaud UN Women for its leadership in partnering with industry to inspire the world’s next generation of digital innovators.”

Advancing opportunities for STEM education including digital technologies such as Blockchain can help women and girls to design, shape and benefit from the technological transformations and innovations changing our world,” says Ann Rosenberg, Senior Vice President and Global Head of SAP Next-Gen. “We are pleased to support the UN Women Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Industry Forum, and to foster new connections among academia, corporations, startups, tech community partners, and purpose driven organizations to help accelerate achieving the UN Global Goals including Goal 4 – Quality Education.