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.
Integrating health in human settlements
Health through human settlements: Investigating policymakers’ perceptions of human settlement action for population health improvement in urban South Africa.
A Systematised Review of the Health Impact of Urban Informal Settlements and Implications for Upgrading Interventions in South Africa, a Rapidly Urbanising Middle-Income Country
Informal settlements are becoming more entrenched within African cities as the urban population continues to grow. Characterised by poor housing conditions and inadequate services, informal settlements are associated with an increased risk of disease and ill-health. However, little is known about how informal settlement upgrading impacts health over time. A systematised literature review was conducted to explore existing evidence and knowledge gaps on the association between informal settlement characteristics and health and the impact of informal settlement upgrading on health, within South Africa, an upper-middle-income African country.
Breaking down the silos of Universal Health Coverage: towards systems for the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases in Africa
African countries are not on track to achieve global targets for non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention, driven by an insufficient focus on ecological drivers of NCD risk factors, including poor urban development and the unbridled proliferation of the commercial determinants of health.
This is the best time to plan for urban Africa’s next health emergency
Health, it turns out, is everybody’s business. The Covid-19 pandemic has made this clear, laying bare the gaping cracks in our societal systems that have driven the emergence and unprecedented transmission of a novel coronavirus; and highlighting the need for a more health-aligned societal reset.
Dr Tolullah Oni reimagines society after COVID-19
“We have lost our way with thinking about the purpose of cities,…we need to prioritise public health infrastructure”. In this interview with the International Science Council’s Global Science TV host Nuala Hafner, Oni et al. Principal, Tolullah Oni, explains what that means and how it could help avoid future global health crises.
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