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SIHI Philippines at the University of the Philippines

The Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) Philippines Hub was launched in 2017. We are based at the University of the Philippines Manila (UP Manila) and we hope to contribute to nurturing the social innovation in health (SIH) ecosystem in the Philippines so that local health solutions are developed and scaled to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes of individuals, families, and communities.

OUR FOCUS

The Social Innovation in Health Initiative – Philippines Hub (SIHI Philippines), was launched in 2017 with the support of TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. SIHI Philippines was initially hosted at the UP College of Medicine Department of Clinical Epidemiology. In 2024, it transitioned to become the Program for Social Innovations and Entrepreneurship in Health (PSEH) under the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology within the (UP-NIH). Since 2017, SIHI Philippines has been spearheading the identification and research of social innovations in health in the Philippines. It conducted a first national crowdsourcing call for social innovations in health in 2017 and has produced case studies on the four most outstanding innovations identified in that call. Examples of social innovations in health in the Philippines include the Partners in Leprosy Action, the Inter-Island Health Service Boat Project in Zumarraga, Samar, the Seal of Health Governance initiated in Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte, the Php 6.60 Everyday Family Health Plan implemented in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, and the National Telehealth System. SIHI Philippines has also served as the secretariat for the Gelia Castillo Award for Research on Social Innovations in Health. This national award has identified 30 innovations that improve health in different parts of the country.

Our vision is to become the country’s prime mover and catalyst in research and capacity strengthening to advance social innovations in health, contributing to the transformation of health systems by 2030. Our mission is to support social innovations in health through community-engaged research, capacity strengthening, knowledge brokering, and ecosystem building.

Our focus areas are:

Identification and Research of social innovations in health

We identify, recognize, document, and conduct further research on social innovations in health, and disseminate results and lessons.

Capacity Strengthening for SIH research and practice

We enhance stakeholders' institutional capacity for research and practice on social innovation in health through training activities and materials

Connecting and Convening actors of the SIH ecosystem

We connect innovators and partners to each other, and to resources on social innovation in health

Knowledge Translation and Uptake of research and innovations

We facilitate the translation of social innovation research into health systems and policy actions.

OUR ACTIVITIES

GCARSIH 2020, 2022, and 2024

The Gelia Castillo Award for Research on Social Innovations in Health (GCARSIH) is a national award presented by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) in collaboration with the Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical Epidemiology (FACE) Inc. and SIHI Philippines. GCARSIH aims to recognize outstanding social innovations that address persistent, societal and health system challenges in the Philippines. SIHI Philippines acts as the secretariat for GCARSIH. The second GCARSIH, held in 2022, received 82 entries across the Philippines and selected three top innovations and seven finalists promoting effective, meaningful, and sustainable solutions to complex challenges in health care. The latest cycle, with call opened in August 2024, received 70 entries, continuing on the recognition of these local social innovations.

As part of their incentives, the winners and finalists underwent a training and mentoring package organized by the GCARSIH Secretariat to help guide them in moving their innovations forward through research.

2020
2022

2024

Youth Open Call and Online Civic Hackathon
SIHI Philippines, in partnership with Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health, Asian Medical Students Association Philippines, and other youth organizations, and with the support of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office conducted an open call entitled “Imagine the World Anew: A Call for Youth Voices on the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines.” Filipino youth (ages 15-30) were invited to submit their ideas on how they imagine the future after the COVID-19 pandemic and their youth-led social innovations in health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The call was launched on October 14, 2020 and submissions were accepted from November 5 to December 18, 2020. Out of 113 submissions, 15 were selected as finalists and 4 went on to be the grand winners. The finalists joined an Online Civic Hackathon on January 30, 2021.

We launched the social innovation in health exchange platform or InnovEx on 19 December 2023. It was co-developed by various partners and supported by the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development. InnovEx is an online venue for sharing, learning, and networking among actors of the social innovation in health ecosystem in the Philippines, including innovators, implementers, researchers, funders, and other partners. It features a repository of innovations, forums and communities, and a database of resources.

The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) partnered with us and launched the Bayang Malusog (Healthy Nation) Exchange or BMEx through our SIHI Talks on 30 May 2024. This will enhance the Bayang Malusog communities of practice by hosting BMEx in the online innovation exchange platform, InnovEx.

The launch was conducted via Zoom and featured a presentation from Dr. Catherine Chung, Director for Local Health Systems at ZFF and a panel discussion with Dr. Mark Calban (Provincial Health Officer of Apayao), Mr. J-Lorenz (UHC Coordinator of Aklan) Dionisio and Dr. Kath Flores (Department of Health Bureau of Local Health Systems Development).

TUFH 2023
The Network: Towards Unity for Health 2023 Conference: Beyond Boundaries: Health Equity through a Culture of Learning (23-26 October 2023):

  • Incorporating Praxis and People-Centered Development in the Pilot Implementation of the Community Engagement Self-Monitoring Strategy for Social Innovations in Health in the Philippines
  • Capacitating Local Health System Leaders for the Implementation of Universal Health Care in the Philippines: the Integrated Provincial Health Systems Development Program
  • Applying Human Centered Design for Local Telemedicine Systems in Southern Luzon, Philippines
  • Fostering Multi-sectoral Learning through the Development of a Social Innovation in Health Exchange Platform
  • Implementation of a Training and Mentoring Package for Research in Social Innovation in Health
  • Tailor-Made Training on Social Innovation for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Philippines

 

TGHN 2022
The Global Health Network Conference 2022: Enabling Health Research in Every Healthcare Setting (24-25 November 2022 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa):

  • Implementing a Community Engagement Self-Monitoring (CE-SM) Strategy for Social Innovations in Health: The Philippine Pilot
  • Using human-centered design approaches to develop innovative models for delivery of essential health services in three Philippine rural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

 

TUFH 2022
For the Towards Unity for Health (TUFH) 2022 Conference held on August 16-19, 2022, we delivered the following oral poster presentations:

  1. Institutionalization of Recognition of Social Innovation in Health Research in the Public Sector
  2. Development of the WHO Community Engagement Package: A Global Collaboration to Support Learning and Practice
  3. Implementing a Community Engagement Self-Monitoring (CE-SM) Strategy for Social Innovations in Health: the Philippine Pilot
  4. Towards gender transformative responses for community health: An exploratory rapid appraisal to initiate intersectional gender analysis of social innovations in health
  5. Using human-centered design approaches to develop innovative models for delivery of essential health services in three Philippine rural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

 

The Global Health Network Conference 2022
Our research associates participated in the Global Health Network Conference 2022 held at the University of Cape Town, South Africa on November 24-25, 2022 and contributed two abstracts:

  1. Implementing a Community Engagement Self-Monitoring (CE-SM) Strategy for Social Innovations in Health: the Philippine Pilot – poster
  2. Using human-centered design approaches to develop innovative models for delivery of essential health services in three Philippine rural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic – oral presentation

 

TUFH 2021
SIHI Philippines participated in The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH) 2021 Conference, hosted by Universitas Gadjah Mada. This year’s conference theme was “Enhancing Interprofessional Collaboration and Learning for Strengthening Primary Health Care.” We presented the following abstracts:

  • A Tailor-Made Training on Social Innovation for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Philippines
  • Imagine the World Anew: A Call for Youth Voices on the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines

 

SILKEN
SIHI Philippines presented the “Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Research and Teaching Landscape: The Philippine Report” at the Social Innovation Linkages for Knowledge Exchange Network (SILKEN) Conference on March 26, 2021. The conference theme was Shaping Futures and Making Connections.

Participatory Action Research Workshop
SIHI Philippines Hub Leads Dr. Meredith Del Pilar-Labarda and Mr. Arturo Ongkeko Jr. and Hub Manager Dr. Jana Mier-Alpano served as resource persons and facilitators at the Eastern Visayas Health Research and Development Consortium‘s workshop on Participatory Action Research (PAR) for Health Systems on 27-29 May 2024. The workshop featured lectures on Introduction to PAR, Human-Centered Design for PAR, and PAR for Digital Social Innovations. Three research teams were able to enhance their grant proposals to integrate PAR principles and methods into them.

 

Human-Centered Design for Local Telemedicine Systems

  • We co-facilitated a training workshop for the Department of Health Region IV-A’s Telemedisina sa Timog Katagalugan”(Telemedicine for Southern Luzon) project on 14 to 16 November 2022. Representatives of rural health units, district hospitals, and provincial hospitals from the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon participated in the activity.
  • We joined the Department of Health (DOH) Regional Office IV-A and the University of the Philippines Medical Informatics Unit (UP MIU) in conducting a three-day training workshop on telemedicine held on November 14-16, 2022 at Canyon Woods, Batangas. The participants were representatives from selected rural health units, district hospitals and provincial hospitals from the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon. The UP MIU delivered lectures and activities on knowledge and skills on telemedicine such as the technological aspects, history taking and physical examination, “webside” manners, and medicolegal issues. SIHI Philippines introduced the human centered design (HCD) approach and facilitated HCD tools and activities as the participants designed their local telemedicine systems.

 

Introductory Education Module

  • As part of the Master of Public Health program of the Department of Health and the University of the Philippines Manila College of Public Health for Doctors to the Barrios (DTTBs), about 160 DTTBs serving in various rural and remote areas in the country participated in the rollout of SIHI Philippines’ introductory module on social innovation in health in August 2019. In the same month, SIHI Philippines also facilitated the module with over 60 students from the UP Manila School of Health Sciences Main Campus in Palo, Leyte. The introductory module is intended to give practicing primary care physicians, community health workers, health educators, and students an alternative lens to improving health care in the Philippines.
  • In 2021-2022, the module was delivered as a half-day online session to 5 sections with 10-20 DTTBs each as part of an elective in their Master of Public Health program.

 

Tailor-Made Training on Social Innovation for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
SIHI Philippines, in partnership with the University of the Philippines School of Health Sciences (UP SHS) and SHE Collaborates – School of Health Professions Education of Maastricht University, launched in July 2020 the Tailor-Made Training on Social Innovation for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Philippines. This project aims to strengthen health professionals, community health workers and leaders to explore different aspects of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and to become future coaches of innovative community initiatives towards healthier sexual and reproductive behavior, especially in the Eastern Visayas Region. The project is funded by the Nuffic Orange Knowledge Program. A series of online training sessions in 2020-2021 covered Introduction to Gender, Intervention Mapping, Community Engagement, and Social Media Interventions. Finally in 2022, two face-to-face workshops were conducted. The first five-day workshop was on Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Gender Issues, conducted by Jan Reynders on July 18-22, 2022 in Tacloban City. The second and final face-to-face workshop was facilitated by Marijke Kruithof and Yoka Cerfontaine on October 10-14, 2022 and focused on creative training activities and tools and stimulating dialogue on SRHR. This will culminate in the development of a toolkit and roadmap to cascade the training to the SIHI network, health sciences students, and partner communities.

Since 2020, we have been partnering with The Center for Tropical Medicine of Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in advancing social innovation and implementation research in both countries. In 2021, we also partnered with DERBI Foundation in Bangalore, India, and SESH in China to collaborate as SIHI hubs in Asia.

Our Research Projects

In the Philippines, disparities in healthcare access, quality, and distribution remain a persistent challenge. Social innovation in health has emerged as a new approach to address these inequities by developing community-driven, socio-culturally relevant, and sustainable solutions to complex health system issues and disparities. This ongoing study aims to explore the factors within social innovations that promote or hinder health equity, providing insights to enhance their design, implementation, and impact. By understanding these dynamics, the study seeks to inform decisions in programming, policymaking, and funding, while guiding equity-focused evaluations to support inclusive and effective health systems.

  • From July to December in 2021, we led the implementation of a community engagement self-monitoring (CE-SM) strategy in two community-managed social innovations in the Philippines. The implementation sites were the Innovations for Community Health, Inc. for Kalinga Health, which focuses on TB care, and the municipality of Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte for the Seal of Health Governance, which is a community health leadership and monitoring programme. The CE-SM project aims to empower communities to monitor processes in social innovations by developing a community grounded and contextualized self-monitoring approach.
  • Key findings show that the proactive leadership of community leaders and the active participation of community members significantly contributed to the success of the CE-SM strategy. Regular feedback sessions were seen as important, not only as a means of monitoring progress, but also for boosting the community members’ morale.
  • A second phase of the implementation of this strategy was conducted in July to December 2022 among two barangays in Del Carmen, Surigao Del Norte. In addition to the aspects in the previous phase, this also involved profiling the community members who serve as “local monitors”, capacity building workshops, and regular praxis sessions.
    Read the full article here.

The SIHI Philippines Hub was selected by the WHO Country Readiness Strengthening Department to develop a Community Engagement Package. This draws on the experiences of the WHO and partners in working with communities and provide a learning resource for public health practitioners and organizations. The package has three components: 1) Database of experiences on community engagement in different settings, 2) Community engagement learning package (consisting of four online modules) based on the database and 3) Community engagement workshop package based on the database. SIHI Philippines collaborated with the SIHI hubs in Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Colombia, and Honduras for this project.
Read more here.

SIHI Philippines was commissioned by the WHO Country Office in the Philippines to conduct a research project entitled “Assessment of health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic and introducing innovative solutions for an extended service delivery platform under the new normal in health care.” The project aimed to deepen the understanding of the demand-side of the health system during the COVID-19 pandemic and to co-create an evidence-informed health system delivery platform to improve access to primary health care services. The first phase of the project included a rapid assessment and analysis of community members’ needs, preferences, values, and behaviors regarding their experiences with the current healthcare system during the pandemic. The second phase involved co-creation and pilot implementation of an extended health service delivery platform facilitated by innovative solutions to deliver essential health services aligned with the ongoing universal health care implementation. The main output of the second phase was a prototype telereferral system using two-way radio.

We were tapped by the Zuellig Family Foundation to conduct an end-line study of their “Integrated Provincial Health System Development Program” which involves training and coaching of local chief executives and local health system managers as they seek to implement Universal Health Care in their provinces and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 2019, SIHI Philippines represented UP Manila as a research partner of the British Council-led Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Research and Teaching Landscape (SISERTL) project, which mapped out the social innovation and social entrepreneurship landscape in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. The research project was implemented in consortium with the Institute for Social Innovation and Impact at the University of Northampton (United Kingdom), Universiti Teknologi Petronas (Malaysia), University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Bina Nusantara Institute (Indonesia), and the Centre for Social Value Enhancement Studies (South Korea), and was completed in March 2020.
Download the full report here.

  • Case visits were conducted to each of the selected social innovations identified in the first open call in 2018 and the case studies along with the case videos are now available to read, watch and download. See more below.
    1. Holistic Water Systems for Pumping Water Uphill by the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc.
    2. University of the Philippines Diliman Psychosocial Services (UPD PsycServ) by the University of the Philippines Diliman
    3. Kalinga Health: A Hub-and-Spoke Social Enterprise Model for TB Care by Innovations for Community Health

 

  • Moreover, the case studies on the Holistic Water Systems and Kalinga Health have an additional focus on examining them with an intersectional gender lens.

Watch the Social Innovation Films form the Philippines

Watch the Video on YouTube

Social innovations in health in Philippines

ABOUT US

DR. MEREDITH DEL PILAR-LABARDA

Meredith is the lead for SIHI Secretariat, a health social scientist, medical doctor and a professor at the University of the Philippines Manila School of Health Sciences, an innovative school known for its community-oriented stepladder health professions education curriculum. She is also a doctor of social development and the school’s lead coordinator for health leadership and governance programs in partnership with government and non-government organizations in providing capacity building trainings and coaching for local chief executives, municipal health officers and other important stakeholders in the local health system and community. Her advocacies, work engagements and research interests include health and social development, social innovations, transformative health leadership and governance, community partnerships and empowerment, local health systems strengthening, disaster and resilience, youth capacity building and transformative health professions education.

ARTURO ONGKEKO JR.

Art is currently an affiliate faculty of the SIHI Secretariat and the Philippines Hub. He is also a registered nurse and a health informatics specialist at the National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila with over 10 years of experience in managing and implementing digital health solutions in different practice settings. In 2019, he co-founded and is concurrently serving as the chief executive officer of a start-up company to sustain and scale-up a digital health innovation generated by the university.

Dr. Jana Deborah Mier-Alpaño

Jana is the SIHI Philippines Co-Lead for Strategy and Operations. She graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in 2014. For four years, she served as the Municipal Health Officer of a rural island municipality in the Philippines, under the Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) Program of the Department of Health. In 2016, she finished her master’s degree in public management from the Development Academy of the Philippines, wherein she received the Leadership Award, and the Creativity and Innovation Award.

JEAN FRANCIS BARCENA

Jean joined SIHI Philippines in 2018 as the SIHI communications coordinator, working to support the communication efforts of the SIHI country hubs. She has a master’s degree in media studies and her communications background includes working in media as well as in academic and non-government organizations.

Dr. JOSE RENE BAGANI CRUZ

Jose is the Co-Lead for Research of the SIHI Philippines Hub. He also served the SIHI Secretariat as the Network Coordinator from 2020-2022. He holds a medical degree from the University of the Philippines and a master’s degree in public health from Soonchunhyang University. Prior to joining SIHI, he has worked on various research projects such as the Philippine National TB Prevalence Survey.

DR. MARY ANN LANSANG

Dr. Mary Ann Lansang is a technical advisor of SIHI Philippines Hub. She is a clinical professor at the Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology, UP College of Medicine, UP Manila. She is currently a member of the TDR Global Working Group.

TRIS ESTEBAN

Tris is the new Research Associate of the SIHI Philippines Hub. She graduated from the University of the Philippines Manila in 2023 with a degree in Public Health, and has since been working on health research. Prior to joining SIHI, she has participated in research involving climate change, health, mental health, and migration. In 2024, she contributed to the World Health Organization’s publication on Strengthening health systems to improve the health of displaced and migrant populations in the context of climate change: Evidence brief.

DR. PAMELA BIANCA M. PASCO

Pam Pasco started engaging with the Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) network as a student volunteer for some of its activities, and is now the SIHI Philippines’ Hub Manager. A Doctor of Medicine graduate of the Integrated Liberal Arts and Medicine (INTARMED) Program from the University of the Philippines & a then-active student leader, Pam has experience in advocacy-oriented project management, external relations, and promotions & social media management for both local & international audiences. She has been involved in designing & facilitating workshops under International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations & led the Capacity Building division establishment of the Asian Medical Students’ Association – Philippines. Her interests include travel & cultural immersion, innovative & collaborative work for inclusivity, gender equality, mental health, universal healthcare & medical education.

PAMELA TAGLE

Pam is SIHI Philippines Hub’s administrative associate. She has provided administrative support for several UP Manila-based research, policy, and publication projects, and has served in organizations such as the International Clinical Epidemiology Network-Asia and World Health Organization Philippines.

Key Partners

Philippine Council for Health Research and Development

The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) is one of the three sectoral councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and is a national body that coordinates and monitors research activities in the Philippines. PCHRD collaborates with SIHI Philippines on the Gelia Castillo Award for Social Innovations in Health.

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Department of Health

The Department of Health (DOH) is the lead health agency in the Philippines that is mandated to ensure Filipinos’ access to basic public health services through the provision of quality health care and to regulate providers of health goods and services. Specifically, SIHI Philippines consults the Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau of DOH for technical input on health research and development.

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CONTACT US

If you are interested to become part of SIHI Philippines or join our activities, please contact:

Dr. Pamela Bianca M. Pasco – SIHI Philippines Hub Manager
sihi.philippines@gmail.com
philippines@socialinnovationinhealth.org

© 2025, TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases