Our purpose
Oni et al. is an urban health practice, designing health into cities.
We apply public health science to consulting work, collaborating as technical partners on boundary-spanning solutions that seek to equitably integrate health into urban systems and environments.
Our consulting services also include advisory, thought leadership and speaking engagements on urban health and science diplomacy, shaping norms to health-proof the future of cities globally.
Our expertise and services
Technical
partnerships
Strategic partnerships are crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We apply urban health scientific expertise to inform the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies, initiatives and policies that seek to equitably create health in cities.
We work as technical partners with organisations across public, private and civil society sectors to conceptualise and co-design actions that advance the achievement of the SDGs, with a focus on SDGs 3 (health) and 11 (cities).
Advisory
roles
We serve as scientific advisers on urban health and science diplomacy for several organisations including:
Speaking
engagements
Ideas Lab, WEF Annual Meeting Davos 2018
Can blockchain technology solve the challenges of lack of integrated data and accountability mechanisms to improve public health in urban settings?
Prof. Tolu Oni of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, explains the underlying concepts behind this approach and the challenges in applying it.
Architects are health professionals too, Conscious cities festival, Royal Institute for British Architects, 2018
As part of the Conscious cities festival held at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Professor Tolu Oni explored how architecture and urban design can better respond to human needs. In this talk, she asks us to reimagine the future role of the architect to one that promotes health-enabling design standards that promote well-being.
Thought
leadership
The first in INGSA’s COVID-19 Video Series, that will be asking a diverse range of experts:
How has the world changed and what challenges will we face post-COVID?
Prof Tolu Oni discusses what has been revealed by the crisis, our need for ‘Emergency Health Foresight’, how preparedness is not enough, and what the world is at risk of un-learning in the wake of the crisis.
May 25, 2020
Integrating health into human settlements policy (LIRA study)
Using Cape Town, South Africa, and Douala, Cameroon, as case studies, this LIRA project (2018–2020), led by Tolullah Oni, seeks to develop a practical health and housing-integrated collaboration model that will improve urban policymaking and governance for the planning of African cities. The project brings together academic and non-academic stakeholders representing a range of expertise: public health, health geography, urban planning, and demography. The project contributes to SDG 3 and SDG 11.
Earth day future earth talk
This year marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22, to demonstrate support for environmental protection and represents a day of action to shift human behaviour and provoke policy changes. The very first celebration took place in 1970, and it has now grown to a staggering global event with celebrations in more than 193 countries involving over a billion people.
The presenters highlighted that this pandemic is a result of a much larger global sustainability crisis, coming from human activities which have to radically change for a more healthy sustainable planet.
Dr Oni focused on the integration of disparate domains into governance systems that serve human health and support sustainable cities.
Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements
Here, we offer a set of practice and policy suggestions that aim to (1) dampen the spread of COVID-19 based on the latest available science, (2) improve the likelihood of medical care for the urban poor whether or not they get infected, and (3) provide economic, social, and physical improvements and protections to the urban poor, including migrants, slum communities, and their residents, that can improve their long-term well-being.
Here’s how ‘science diplomacy’ can help us contain COVID-19
Bolder action for health in Africa: From building health systems to building systems for health for NCD prevention
African countries are not on track to achieve the targets for NCD prevention and management.
A marshall plan for urban health in Africa’s cities: Harnessing urban infrastructure development post-COVID-19 to build resilient systems and policies for inclusive (human and planetary) health
Creating inclusive health will require a focus on systems for health, an umbrella term for factors and systems that determine health.
