SIHI establishes its new Secretariat at the University of the Philippines

In an exciting development for health-related social innovation research, the Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) has established its new Secretariat at the University of the Philippines, Manila.

University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital
Credit: Patrickroque01 / CC BY-SA

SIHI is a network of partner institutions and a community of stakeholders, established in 2014 through TDR’s leadership in collaboration with the University of Cape Town’s Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the University of Oxford, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Since then, an increasing number of partners have joined the network.

SIHI aims to advance social innovation to bridge the health care delivery gap and accelerate progress toward universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Positioned alongside the SIHI Philippines hub, the Secretariat will help coordinate the growing SIHI network (including SIHI research hubs in countries and partners all over the world) and strengthen the network’s communications.

Effective coordination of the SIHI network will enhance synergy, sharing and learning between partners and leverage their resources. Meanwhile, harmonizing SIHI communications through strong branding and an innovative communication strategy will support advocacy efforts and help connect with a wider audience at the global level.

A growing and expanding network

Since SIHI was established in 2014, the initiative has continued its rapid growth in low- and medium-income countries (LMICs), with hubs directly moving SIHI activities forward in countries while partners support these activities across the globe. Recently, six new research institutions in Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Thailand have joined the SIHI network to collaborate with the SIHI hubs already established in China, Colombia, Malawi, Philippines, South Africa and Uganda.

Coordinating activities and developing effective communications through this expansion has become an increasing challenge. TDR therefore put out a call for applications for the Secretariat earlier this year. The SIHI Philippines hub was the logical choice, given its capacities and its central role in coordinating SIHI’s communications activities over the past two years.

The work of the Secretariat commenced formally in May this year.

A multi-talented team with a unified ambition

The Secretariat team is co-led by Noel Juban (who also leads the SIHI Philippines hub) and Meredith del Pilar-Labarda. Jean Barcena is the Communications Coordinator and Jose Cruz the Network Coordinator. Team members have diverse backgrounds and bring a great deal of enthusiasm as well as a range of talents to the Secretariat. All have experience and firmly believe in the importance of community-level initiatives.

Noel is a professor and faculty member at the University of the Philippines who has worked at its Manila base for the last 20 years. He is a committed epidemiology researcher who is currently undertaking social innovation research projects with the Philippines’ Department of Health and Department of Science and Technology. A psychology graduate that later studied medicine as well as clinical epidemiology, Noel has practical experience of working in the community: early in his career he worked as a consultant with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, where his first assignment was in the community medicine component. “I was in the field,” he says, “training health workers together with medical interns.” His experience there has left a lasting impression: “Working with the community is something I treasure,” he adds.

Meredith, is a social development practitioner and also a medical faculty member of the University of the Philippines. She is connected with the University of the Philippines School of Health Sciences, located about an hour’s flight away from other team members. “The School of Health Sciences itself is a social innovation of the University” she says, “because of its targeted recruitment from very poor communities and its step-ladder approach to training health professionals”. Students are funded by their own local governments on the condition they serve their community after graduation. Meredith, who has been with the University for over 11 years, is one of the Secretariat’s newest members, having just joined earlier this year. “I agreed to the invitation to become part of the SIHI secretariat,” she says “because for me it’s very important that we put forward into a wider platform a more grounded perspective of what we do in the communities—what’s important to the community, how community people do it, what works and what does not work. Most of the time these activities are not talked about – these are not put into journals or talked about at conferences.”

Before joining SIHI, Jean worked in development organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the media – her background being communications. She got involved with health communications while working at the University of the Philippines. Jean has been coordinating SIHI’s communications over the last two years, so for her the new role is an extension of what she has already been doing. “The challenge for me is to simplify concepts so that more people will have a buy in,” she says, adding that “part of our advocacy is for governments to take up social innovation in health”. She also sees communications as central to the growth and development of SIHI itself – “Part of our role is also transferring knowledge about how we do research from the older, first generation hubs to the new hubs”. Referring to the complex terminology and concepts around social innovation, Jean adds, “It’s also important to make sure we’re ‘on the same page’ – that we understand social innovation in the same way”.

Jose is the newest member of the Secretariat team, having only joined a month ago. He is a graduate of University of the Philippines College of Medicine, so by profession he is a doctor. Before joining SIHI, Jose was studying for a master’s degree in public health at Soonchunhyang University in Korea. He has worked with Noel on other projects (before his master’s). Although not part of it at the time, Jose has seen the SIHI Philippines hub develop and has been impressed by its history and growth. “SIHI now has twelve hubs across the world,” he says, adding “I can’t wait to see what will happen in the future. Maybe we’ll reach all countries?”

It is Noel who has brought all the Secretariat team members together, having worked with them or met them at meetings and conferences over the years. It was a natural convergence, as Noel says, “to work with people you know!”.

Leveraging support across the country and beyond, the team works closely with Mary Ann Lansang, a SIHI champion in the Philippines. The team also collaborates with SESH (the SIHI China hub) to facilitate the development of common projects with the hubs and provide support to the hubs to enhance their sustainability.

Enhancing leadership from low- and middle-income countries

The SIHI Secretariat’s strengths are its diverse background, its experience at building up a new hub and its previous experience in coordinating hub communications. It knows the challenges and can empathise with hubs as they develop – “We’ve been there since the start,” says Noel, “meaning that it’s easier for us to understand hub needs”. He adds: “We also want to help new hubs be visible in their setting – there is a role for the pioneer hubs (which are acting as regional partners for the new hubs); we can also invite and share expertise among hubs”.

Moving forward and transforming challenges into opportunities

“Social innovation is already getting recognized at the regional level,” says Noel, referring to a meeting at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific where social innovation and research was discussed. The task ahead is to consolidate this recognition and engage policy-makers and other stakeholders at a global level through shared advocacy and effective communications – all while helping the SIHI network grow and develop. The Secretariat will be taking the lead to facilitate sharing and learning amongst partners and ensure SIHI communicates as one voice.

Although COVID-19 is affecting how meetings might take place, back-up plans are being developed. Possibly, one of the greatest challenges for the Secretariat will be to remain innovative and think of new ways of doing things while keeping all the hubs and stakeholders engaged.

The Secretariat has “hit the ground running” by hosting a virtual SIHI Hub Network Event on 25–27 May. This event, co-organized with the SIHI China hub and the SIHI Philippines hub, was originally scheduled to be held at the Les Pensières Centre for Global Health in Annecy, France, with the aim of welcoming the new partners engaged in countries, share experience and develop common plans. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event went online. This provided a great opportunity to test new ways of working at a distance while getting the best out of interactions. For instance, advance preparation by attendees resulted in optimal use of the time for interaction, different platforms were used in case of connectivity issues, and various tools were used to engage all participants. The Secretariat also came up with innovative ways of virtual interaction among participants to simulate the cross-pollination of ideas and learnings using the principles of a “World Café” (now called a “SIHI Café”) – as had been originally planned for the face-to-face event.

Participants at the SIHI hubs network event
Credit: SIHI

Over 50 participants joined the meeting. The new virtual approaches successfully piloted by the Secretariat created a family atmosphere and an environment conducive to the development of collaborations and enhanced co-creation. This event turned the challenges arising from COVID-19-related travel restrictions into great opportunities that can be built upon in a future where further virtual events are likely to be needed.