Dozens of Liberian doctors are receiving specialized training through a new round of scholarships from the Merck Foundation aimed at boosting the country’s clinical capacity, officials said following the Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary conference in Banjul, The Gambia.
The foundation — in partnership with Liberia’s First Lady, Kartumu Yarta Boakai, who serves as an ambassador for Merck’s “More Than a Mother” initiative — confirmed that 52 young Liberian physicians have been funded to train in critical and underserved specialties.
The announcement was made during the foundation’s 12th annual summit, co-chaired by Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of the Merck Foundation, and The Gambia’s First Lady, Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow.
The scholarships cover a range of priority areas intended to address long-standing service gaps in Liberia’s public health sector.
According to the foundation, 28 scholarships support training in fertility, embryology and sexual and reproductive medicine; five target oncology; nine cover acute medicine, dermatology, infectious diseases, paediatrics, child health and nursing; and 10 focus on diabetes, endocrinology and preventive cardiovascular medicine.
Dr. Kelej highlighted the program’s concrete results, saying many of the scholarship recipients have become the first specialists in their fields within Liberia’s public hospitals.
She also noted that Liberia’s current minister of health is an alumnus of a Merck Foundation training program, underscoring the scheme’s sustained institutional impact.
The foundation said the specialist training is already yielding service expansions: doctors trained in diabetes and endocrinology are setting up specialized diabetes clinics across the country, while reproductive medicine and embryology specialists are helping to address infertility care and related stigma.
First Lady Boakai praised the partnership and its broader social benefits, pointing to complementary initiatives such as the “Educating Linda” scholarship programme, which supports 40 underprivileged high-achieving girls annually, and recent distributions of 3,000 school-item sets in Liberia.
The Merck Foundation also launched nine children’s storybooks on health and social issues and announced an open call for creative awards in partnership with the First Lady’s office to boost public awareness on health topics.
The conference brought together African and Asian leaders and focused on scaling health capacity, women’s empowerment and social transformation in underserved communities. Merck Foundation officials said the organisation has provided more than 2,500 scholarships to healthcare providers from 52 countries across 44 underserved specialties and has trained thousands of media professionals to improve health communication.
Health sector observers welcomed the scholarships as a positive step but urged the government and partners to ensure that trained specialists are retained in public facilities, that their skills are integrated into broader health-system planning, and that investments in infrastructure and supplies keep pace with human-resource development.
The Merck Foundation said country-wise impact reports and future strategies to expand training and outreach were discussed at the summit, reflecting an ongoing effort to strengthen health systems through targeted specialist education and community engagement.
