Tenthani who also reports for the BBC, Pan African News Agency (Pana) and the Maravi Post, a US-based current affairs online publication among others, received an individual award alongside other AP correspondents.
AP, whose news stories reach half of the world's population each day, won three awards including a silver medal.
AP's vice president John Daniszewski said the correspondents were picked for "a series of stories, photos and video reports on people and how the progress or lack of progress in meeting the goals affected them and their families."
Daniszewski said that "at the beginning of the new millennium, world leaders pledged to tackle poverty, disease, ignorance and inequality, committing to specific goals to be met by 2015."
"Progress was made in the first 10 years, and the leaders met again at the United Nations last week to measure the progress of each Millennium Development Goal," he said.
Speaking at the award ceremony held in New York last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on world leaders to do everything in their power to spur progress in meeting the MDGs.
