Merck participates in a number of coalitions that seek to support women's reproductive health by increasing access to family planning, reducing maternal mortality and promoting collaboration among the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

Global Business Coalition's Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Initiative

Healthy Women, Healthy Economies is a strategic partnership between the Global Business Coalition (GBC) and the State Department, bringing together corporations, governments and NGOs to realize shared goals faster and more effectively. During the first phase (November 2010 - June 2011), GBC convened leaders from across sectors to map out a global business action plan for promoting opportunity for girls and women that dovetails with U.S. president Barack Obama's Global Health Initiative.

MDG5 Meshwork

The mission of the MDG5 Meshwork is to develop innovative and effective partnerships that contribute to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5, to improve maternal health. The MDG5 Meshwork connects over 30 organizations based in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and the Netherlands working on five projects.

Partnership for Maternal and Child Health

The Partnership's mission is to support the global health community to work successfully toward achieving MDGs 4 and 5. This is expected to be done by enhancing partners' interactions and using their comparative advantages to achieve the following objectives:

• Build consensus on, and promote evidence-based, high-impact interventions and means to deliver them through harmonization;
• Contribute to raising US$30 billion (for 2009-2015) to improve maternal, newborn and child health through advocacy; and
• Track partners' commitments and measurement of progress for accountability.

Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC)

The Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition is a global partnership of public, private and nongovernmental organizations dedicated to ensuring that all people in low- and middle-income countries can access and use affordable, high-quality supplies to ensure their better reproductive health. The Coalition brings together diverse agencies and groups with critical roles in providing contraceptives and other reproductive health supplies. These include multilateral and bilateral organizations, private foundations, governments, civil society and private-sector representatives. Merck participates in various RHSC working groups, including the Market Development Approaches Working Group and the Resource Mobilization and Awareness Working Group. Merck signed on to the RHSC's Hand to Hand Campaign to reach a goal of 100 million new users of modern contraception by 2015. Learn more.

Women Deliver's The C-Exchange
The overall goal of The C-Exchange is to convene a group of corporate partners who will work together to find ways of identifying and eliminating barriers to bringing women's health products and services to market and scale in developing countries. The C-Exchange will focus on technological solutions that, if accessible, will help improve the health of girls and women. Four of the solutions—access to contraception, mobile communications, HPV testing and vaccination, and misoprostol—are available today, but scaling up can be complex and challenging. Merck is a member of the C-Exchange's leadership Group of 10 to 12 private sector corporations committed to helping Women Deliver shape, create, and lead The C-Exchange.