MSD Lends its Best Employees to NGOs Around the World

The Fellowship for Global Health programme matches skills to needs. Miranda Ingram reports…

As a global healthcare leader based in Kenilworth, New Jersey, MSD, known as Merck & Co., Inc. in the US and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It also runs the flagship MSD Fellowship for Global Health – a three month, field-based corporate pro bono programme that lends the brightest and the best of its employees to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around the globe as part of its mission to help the world be well.

The aims of the programme are threefold: to strengthen the capacity and reach of the NGOs; to provide a unique, rich professional development opportunity for employees; and to apply learnings across the company. The benefits are also threefold: to the Fellow, to the company and to global health in regions where the need is greatest.

 “In 2012, the company already had a long-standing, robust volunteer program operating around the world,” says Theresa McCoy, who leads the Fellowship Program in the company’s Office of Corporate Responsibility. “However, after benchmarking against other companies, we realised we could increase our impact through full-time engagement of employees sharing their skills in a more systematic and sustainable way. That’s when the idea of the Fellowship was born.”

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