Text by: Jennifer Manongdo
Photos by: Sarah Hazel Moces Pulumbarit

The National Institutes of Health – Health Promotion Program (NIH-HPP) held a workshop on April 21-24, 2026 to co-create initiatives aimed at improving HPV vaccine uptake among female adolescents. 

The four-day workshop convened researchers, policymakers, and community stakeholders to assess service delivery gaps, examine the roles of public and private sector actors in expanding access to vaccination, identify social determinants influencing vaccination decisions, and design innovative strategies that could increase the uptake of HPV vaccination. 

The participants hailed from different communities and sectors in Mandaluyong City, Manila City, Antipolo City, and Los Baños, Laguna. The workshop allowed multiple strategies to emerge, each addressing different aspects of the identified problem.

“The Co-Creation Workshop became a space where lived realities and experiences were shared, which provided context to the data that we found. Together, we hoped to determine the best contextualized strategies to improve HPV vaccine uptake for Filipino adolescents,” said Krizelle Cleo Fowler, UPLIFT Project Co-Lead. 

The UPLIFT Adolescents Project is funded under a flagship grant of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of the United Kingdom.

#FP6 #UPManila #HPVVaccine #InnovationsforLifelongLearning #discoveryandresearch