The United Nations (UN) resident coordinator Maria Jose Torres has called for increased efforts in the promotion of gender equality as a means of achieving the global set targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UN resident representative Maria Jose Torres speaking at the meeting UN resident representative Maria Jose Torres and other officials during the

Torress said that global statistics have indicated that countries with the highest indicators in meeting the SDGs targets are those that have made strides in achieving gender equality.

She made the remarks during a two-day strategic engagement meeting which the UN organized for Parliamentary Women Caucus (PWS) aimed at reducing knowledge gap between female parliamentarians and their male counterparts in issues of budget, legislative and policy formulation.

During the engagement meeting which concluded over the weekend in Blantyre, the UN coordinator challenged the female parliamentarians to lead the gender equality agenda.

On her part, the second deputy speaker of parliament Aisha Adams concurred with the UN coordinator that women and children are the ones who suffer poverty most hence no country is developed unless it empowers its women and girls economically.

Adams, therefore, lobbied for more funding from UN agencies for the Parliamentary Women Caucus (PWS) to fulfil its line up of activities in the current national assembly for the promotion of women participation in decision making.

The UN and the Parliamentary Women Caucus formalised its coordination at an engagement meeting in October 2019 where it was agreed that going forward the collaboration shall be with the UN and not only the UN women as has been in the past.