Lilongwe - The Editors forum in Malawi were engaged in a dialogue session with UNFPA Malawi country team on the prevailing challenges that could slow down progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs by 2030.

Speaking during the first media engagement after the start of the implementation of the 8th country programme, UNFPA Representative, Won Young Hong challenged the media to continue highlighting specific population and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Right issues in Malawi. “As you can all see that from the 2018 preliminary Census results, 51% of Malawi’s population is less than 18 years but this group of young people continue to face a wide range of problems including high HIV infection rate, teenage pregnancies, school dropouts and child marriages among others” she said – “It is therefore necessary that we identify feasible means that will address these challenges”. She further explained that UNFPA is committed to ensuring that there is zero unmet need, gender based violence and preventable maternal deaths.

51% of Malawi’s population is less than 18 years but this group of young people continue to face a wide range of problems including high HIV infection rate, teenage pregnancies, school dropouts and child marriages among others

The Chairperson of the Editors Forum in Malawi, Clifton Kawanga, acknowledged the efforts made by UNFPA to engage the editors due to their role in the newsroom.

He further assured UNFPA that frequent interactions with them will obviously result in improving their understanding on issues that relate to sexual and reproductive health. “Often times, we lack credible sources of information to base our reporting on and as such, we always look for alternative sources that sometimes provide incorrect information, we therefore take this opportunity as a significant step towards empowering us with correct data and facts and also a long-term partnership” he said.

During the session, the results of the 7th country programme were shared, challenges as well as the strategies of the new country programme.  A lot of discussions were on male engagement, gender based violence, teenage pregnancies, maternal health and investment in youth.

This first media engagement session involved Blantyre based editors and it will continue with Lilongwe and finish off with Mzuzu based editors.