In addition to partnerships to address HIV and AIDS, vaccine-preventable illness and other healthcare and disease issues, Merck also is engaged in a number of initiatives to address the broad issue of health care capacity-building in the developing world, focusing specifically on health care training initiatives. Since 2007, we have expanded our focus in this area, starting with activities such as our expansion of the Merck Vaccine Network – Africa and a new collaboration with the Earth Institute for a community health worker training program.

Merck participated in the Task Force on Education and Training of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, an inclusive, no-profit entity established in May 2006 to raise awareness of the looming shortage of millions of health workers in the developing world. The Task Force explored practical solutions for how to scale up massively the education and training of health workers, with the recognition that everyone has a part to play in dealing with the global health workforce crisis – governments, educational leaders, international development partners and donors, local partners and the public and private sectors. The Task Force report, Scaling Up, Saving Lives ( PDF*), with detailed recommendations for improving the education and training of health workers in the developing world, was launched at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2008.

Merck is also a member of the Global Health Initiative (GHI) of the World Economic Forum, which was launched by Kofi Annan at the Annual World Economic Forum Meeting at Davos in 2002. The GHI’s mission is to engage businesses in public/private partnerships to tackle HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and strengthening health systems.

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA, are now one company. We have combined our global operations under the name Merck & Co., Inc. We are working to update our corporate responsibility Web site to reflect our new, combined, global organization.