Lilongwe — Association of Malawi Media Owners (AMMO) Wednesday organized a Media for Life conference to provide an important platform for the media and health stakeholders to explore opportunities for sustainable and committed cooperation in driving the health and wellbeing agenda of Malawi.

Speaking during the Conference in Lilongwe, Executive Member of the AMMO, Kent Mphepo said as business people in the media they have a role to play in disseminating health information to the public to ensure health life for all.

"We are business people in the media industry, but we should make sure that we have health life and our audiences have health life too," Mphepo said.

Mphepo, however, said as health issues are critical, there organization will make sure that journalists are well trained and resourced to ease the problem.

Delivering her keynote address, Minister of Health, Catherine Gotani Hara said no social or health workers can ignore the importance of media today.

"This is why we in the health sector have been engaging with the media to reach out to men and women in the country with messages on health issues," Hara said.

She said her ministry seriously follow all media reports on matters of health and take action on those that require their response.

Hara explained: "As a matter of fact, we consider the media products as some way of getting feedback on how we are doing on the ground," Hara said.

Hara, however, said more meaningful engagement between owners and decision makers in media industry and health policy makers has not been common.

Earlier, head team leader for United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mirriam Lutz commended Ministry of Health for organizing the important opportunity to deliberate ways in which they can further harness the power of media to promote health in the country by building effective partnership with the health sector.

"The media clearly play a vital role in disseminating information; stimulate debate and provoking discussion about key public health issue.

"Research shows that, for the majority of rural communities, mass media especially radio is the most popular source of information and knowledge of health," Lutz said. She also said it is her hope that through the conference the country's media and health experts will achieve mutually satisfying objectives that harness the full potential of the press as strategic partners in health. The conference was organized by Ministry of Health in collaboration with AMMO.

are inseparable and must be addressed together and also emphasizing the Bank's commitment to increase its work in states emerging from conflict and its determination to help lift fragile states out of fragility and back on a positive development track.

The Bank has been at the forefront of identifying operational measures and partnerships (such as Terr Africa) to integrate climate change in land management, water resource management, transport infrastructure, climate-smart agriculture, and disaster risk management and continues to advance innovative policy solutions.