22/09/2016 Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, today announced its partnership with the Royal Health Awareness Society (RHAS) of Jordan to advance health awareness and education particularly on thyroid disease amongst Jordanian women. Women are five to eight times more likely to suffer from thyroid disorders than men. This memorandum of understanding and its resulting policies will advance women’s health and well-being in Jordan enabling women to be more active participants in their local economies.

The agreement is part of the global Healthy Women, Healthy Economies initiative, an innovative public-private partnership that explicitly links the issue of women’s health and well-being with economic growth. The partnership will focus on developing a thyroid awareness campaign through expanding the Healthy Community Clinic program under RHAS’ umbrella, reaching patients (most of whom are women) and health practitioners to promote healthy lifestyles, raise awareness on the importance of diagnosis and treatment of Thyroid, and it will lay the ground work for further programs addressing other non-communicable diseases that disproportionately affect women.

“When you invest in women, it creates a ripple effect uplifting entire families, communities and future generations. That is why we’re proud to partner with RHAS and expand the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies initiative into Jordan. When women do better, communities are stronger and the economy grows”, said Belén Garijo, CEO Merck Healthcare.

This agreement is now the second of its kind under the program, following a 2015 partnership with the Philippine Department of Health and Philippine Thyroid Association. Healthy Women, Healthy Economies is an innovative public-private partnership under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, Merck, and the U.S. and Philippine governments that explicitly links the issue of women’s health and well-being with economic growth.

Healthy Women, Healthy Economies brings together the evidence about women’s health and well-being and its impact on economic growth with the best practices that governments, employers and NGOs can follow. It aims to identify and implement policies that advance women’s health and well-being to increase their economic participation in the societies they live in.

[Commenting on the signing, Hanin Odeh, Director General of RHAS, said: “We are excited about our new partnership with Merck, which opens new horizons for RHAS to scale up and expand its outreach with a particular focus on women. Through this initiative, we are not only helping women look after the health of their children and families better, but more importantly, ensuring that women are looking after their own health. We are glad that we could benefit from Merck’s experience in this area, and adapt scientific and tested approaches, towards a healthier Jordan.”.]