Merck recognizes that human resource capacity building is a major factor in addressing global health challenges.

For example, in 2006, the World Health Organization alerted the world to a shortfall of 4.3 million trained health workers globally, with the worst shortages in the poorest countries. As a direct result, millions of people die or are disabled every year and the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved unless remedial action is taken.

As part of the global effort to address this challenge, Merck participated in the Task Force on Education and Training of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, an inclusive, nonprofit 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/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and strengthening health systems.

To put these recommendations into practice, since 2007 we have expanded our focus in this area, starting with activities such as our expansion of the Merck Vaccine Network – Africa, a collaboration with the Earth Institute for a community health worker training program, and a new partnership with the BroadReach Institute for Training and Education (BRITE) to rollout a Management and Leadership Academy (MLA) program in Zambia.

Through these initiatives and other partnerships to address specific diseases like HIV/AIDS, vaccine-preventable illness and others, Merck is engaged in a number of activities and partnerships to address the broad issue of healthcare capacity building in the developing world, focusing specifically on healthcare training.