Social Innovation in Health Initiative

Transforming health care delivery through research

so no one is left behind

The Social Innovation in Health Initiative (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 and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

In 2016, the network expanded to engage LMICs as implementing partners. SIHI country hubs were established to advance social innovation through research.

These include the University of the Philippines, the University
of Malawi, Makerere University in Uganda, the Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM) in Colombia and the Social Entrepreneurship
to Spur Health (SESH) project. In addition, SIHI collaborates
with various contributing partners, such as Fondation Mérieux, the Ahimsa Fund, the WHO Department of Service Delivery
and Safety, the Pan American Health Organization, UNAIDS, AFRO, the United Nations University-International Institute
for Global Health and UNICEF, to advance and promote social innovation activities in the Global South.

SIHI is supported by TDR and additional funding is provided
by the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency (Sida).

Nurturing collaborations at the global level to promote and support social innovations in health in LMICs

The Health Innovation Exchange provides a new platform aiming at leveraging the potential of innovations to improve health for all. This new initiative links innovators to investors and innovations to implementers.

Sida Science Days was hosted at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in May 2019. The event provided a platform for Sida partners to meet and share experiences and thoughts on topics such as academic freedom, open access and how science can improve the lives of the most vulnerable.

TDR contributed to the session “How can research be put to use” through a presentation and panel discussion on its work and approach to advancing social innovation in health and facilitated a group discussion on how to use implementation research and embedded research for change.

Two social innovations collaborating with SIHI hubs in
China and Malawi were selected and showcased at the World Health Assembly side event:

“ Pay-it-forward: contagious
kindness in health”

- Innovative community-based financing programme
for gonorrhoea/chlamydia screening

(developed by SESH, the SIHI hub in China)

“ Chipatala cha pa Foni” or
“Health Centre by Phone”

- Health initiative enabling rural residents in Malawi to access expert health care through a toll-free health and nutrition hotline

(an innovation identified and studied by the SIHI Malawi hub)

Partnership with the Health Innovation Exchange, led by
UNAIDS and launched on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in May 2019

Participation in Sida Science Days to showcase SIHI and promote
social innovation research

SIHI country hubs play a leadership role in advancing social innovation in health through research, advocacy and capacity strengthening. As research institutions, they are well positioned to provide a unique platform to convene social innovators, government and community representatives, researchers and other stakeholders to work together and nurture social innovations. They create an enabling environment for social innovation to thrive.

They engage in a process to identify, showcase and study local community-engaged and citizen-led social innovations in health. To date more than 200 social innovations have been identified in LMICs and more than 40 case studies have been conducted.

Country hubs also build capacity and embed research in social innovations to enhance their effectiveness and identify mechanisms to replicate or scale them up. Importantly, they engage with key partners at country level to institutionalize social innovation in national systems.

Malnutrition and precarious living conditions are social determinants that are risk factors for tuberculosis (TB). While the National TB Control Programme (NTP) of
Benin is a well-functioning programme, TB incidence
isn’t decreasing.

The NTP of Benin, in collaboration with TDR, is thus leading a research project to explore strategies where the social and environmental circumstances of the patient -- not just medical treatment -- are prioritized. This research project, dubbed ETAP (Empower TB Patients Against Poverty),

is in line with one of the pillars of WHO’s End TB Strategy that promotes a patient-centered care approach.The project consists of two phases: phase 1, conducted in 2018-2019, aimed at measuring patients’ poverty level as well as understanding the multiple dimensions of deprivation, including stigma and social exclusion. In phase 2, the assessment made in phase 1 will help define what strategies (including social innovations) can be implemented and rigorously evaluated to address the social, human and financial vulnerability of TB patients while ensuring their physical recovery from the disease.

Bringing social innovation to research
for TB care beyond medical treatment

At the end of phase 1, a two-day workshop was convened by the NTP of Benin in collaboration with TDR and SIHI, the Social Innovation in Health Initiative, which involved former TB patients, representatives from various ministries (health, agriculture, sports, social affairs and microfinances), non-governmental organizations, researchers, local social innovators and entrepreneurs. This workshop was facilitated by the NGO MAD (Make A Difference), to help participants tap into their creativity to identify innovative ways of social recovery through multisectoral engagement.