Amy Weimann

Amy Weimann

Research Officer

amy.weimann@uct.ac.za

Projects

Bio

Amy Weimann is a Research Officer at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) and Research Lead for the Urban Governance Research Lab as part of the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative (AMALI). She is also part of the teaching staff for the ACC’s Masters in Sustainable Urban Practice.

With a background in urban geography, Amy is also an urban health researcher who completed her PhD in Public Health from the School of Public Health & Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town.

African Mayoral Leadership Initiative
As part of the AMALI’s Urban Governance Research Lab, Amy leads the development of the AMALI GovHub (online knowledge hub), and contributes to the collation of baseline urban-relevant data for African cities, thematic research, and in-depth data collection and compilation of city profiles for the AMALI City Leadership cohorts.

Urban Health research
Amy has an interest in the co-production and translation of urban health research knowledge into policy. Grounded in a transdisciplinary research approach, her PhD expertise included cross-sector data integration for creating new urban health knowledge and identifying opportunities to incorporate health considerations into food environment and human settlements policies at the African regional and South African national levels, respectively.

Her current urban health work includes a Wellcome Trust-funded project exploring the climate and health nexus in Ghana and Rwanda and involves creating CityLabs for knowledge co-production and translation. Amy also serves as the Chair for the Africa Community of Practice of the International Society for Urban Health.

Previous project participation includes the PEAK Urban project – a five-continent research programme coordinated by the University of Oxford with a sustainable urban research focus; and the Global Diet and Activity Research Network from 2017-2021. Amy has also worked in local government – collating, integrating and analysing various sets of city-level data, including the South African Census data, crime data, and developing local monitoring indices comprising demographic, socio-economic and health information.

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

  • Duminy, J., Ezeh, A., Galea, S., Harpham, T., Montgomery, M.R., Salas, J.M.I., Weber, D., Weimann, A., and You, D. (2023). Demographic change and urban health: Towards a novel agenda for delivering sustainable and healthy cities for all. F1000Res. 12:1017. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.139309.2
  • McCreedy, N., Shung-King, M., Weimann, A., Tatah, L., Mapa-Tassou, C., Muzenda, T., Govia, I.,Were, V. & Oni, T. 2022. Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: learnings from a multilevel policy analysis on diet and noncommunicable disease prevention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(18):11828. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811828
  • Muzenda, T., Shung-King, M., Lambert, E.V., Brugulat Panés, A., Weimann, A., McCreedy, N., Tatah, L., Mapa-Tassou, C., Govia, I., Were, V. &  Oni, T. 2022. Three growth spurts in global physical activity policies between 2000 and 2019: a policy document analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(7):3819. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073819
  • Shung-King, M., Weimann, A., McCreedy, N., Tatah, L., Mapa-Tassou, C., Muzenda, T., Govia, I., Were, V., & Oni, T. 2021. Protocol for a multi-level policy analysis of non-communicable disease determinants of diet and physical activity: implications for low- and middle-income countries in Africa and the Caribbean. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(24):13061. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413061
  • Tatah, L., Mapa-Tassou, C., Shung-King, M., Oni, T., Woodcock, J., Weimann, A., McCreedy, N., Muzenda, T., Govia, I., Mbanya, J.C., & Assah, F. 2021. Analysis of Cameroon’s sectoral policies on physical activity for noncommunicable disease prevention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23):12713. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312713
  • Weimann, A., Shung-King, M., McCreedy, N., Tatah, L., Mapa-Tassou, C., Muzenda, T., Govia, I., Were, V., & Oni, T. 2021. Intersectoral action for addressing NCDs through the food environment: an analysis of NCD framing in global policies and its relevance for the African context. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(21):11246. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111246
  • Oni, T., Assah, F., Erzse, A., Foley, L., Govia, I., Hofman, K. J., Lambert, E. V., Micklesfield, L. K., Shung-King, M., Smith, J., Turner-Moss, E., Unwin, N., Wadende, P., Woodcock, J., Mbanya, J. C., Norris, S. A., Obonyo, C. O., Tulloch-Reid, M. & Wareham, N. J. on behalf of the GDAR network. 2020. The global diet and activity research (GDAR) network: A global public health partnership to address upstream NCD risk factors in urban low and middle-income contexts. Globalization and Health, 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00630-y
  • Weimann, A., Kabane, N., Jooste, T., Hawkridge, A. Smit, W. & Oni, T. 2020. Health through human settlements: Investigating policymakers’ perceptions of human settlement action for population health improvement in urban South Africa. Habitat International, 103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2020.102203
  • Oni, T., Micklesfield, L. K., Wadende, P., Obonyo, C. O., Woodcock, J., Mogo, E. R. I., Odunitan-Wayas, F. A., Assah, F., Tatah, L., Foley, L., Mapa-Tassou, C., Bhagtani, D., Weimann, A., Mba, C., Unwin, N., Brugulat-Panés,  A., Hofman, K., J., Smith, J., Tulloch-Reid, M., Erzse, A., Shung-King, M., Lambert, E. V., & Wareham., N. J. 2020. Implications of COVID-19 control measures for diet and physical activity, and lessons for addressing other pandemics facing rapidly urbanising countries. Global Health Action, 13:1. https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2020.1810415
  • Weimann, A., Nguendo-Yongsi, B., Foka, C., Waffo, U., Carbajal, P, Sietchiping, R. & Oni, T. 2020. Developing a participatory approach to building a coalition of transdisciplinary actors for healthy urban planning in African cities – a case study of Douala, Cameroon. Cities & Health, 6(1):87-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2020.1741966
  • Weimann, A. & Oni, T. 2019. 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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(3608):1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193608
  • Weimann, A., Dai, D. & Oni, T. 2016. A cross-sectional and spatial analysis of the prevalence of multimorbidity and its association with socioeconomic disadvantage in South Africa: A comparison between 2008 and 2012. Social Science & Medicine, 163: 144-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.055

Reports/Working Papers/Policy Briefs

  • Duminy, J., Weimann, A. & Parnell, S. (2023). Healthy Cities and the Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities: A network comparison, and options for ways forward, informed by interviews and surveys with WHO stakeholders. Report [unpublished] for the World Health Organization, Geneva.
  • Parnell, S., Weimann, A., Espey, J. & Duminy, J. (2022). A framework for national action for healthy and sustainable cities and communities. Background paper [unpublished] produced for the World Health Organization, Geneva.
  • Parnell, S., Weimann, A., Espey, J. & Duminy, J. (2022). Building the means of implementation to promote healthy and sustainable age-friendly cities and communities. Report [unpublished] produced for the World Health Organization, Geneva.
  • Oni, T., Mogo, E., Ahmed, A., Ebikeme, C., Thomas, Y., Weimann, A. & Davies, J. 2019. Bolder action for health in Africa: from building health systems to building systems for health for NCD prevention [policy brief]. Available: https://isuh.org/bolder-action-for-health-in-africa/
  • Weimann, A., Smit, W., Kabane, N., Jooste, T., Hawkridge, A. and Oni, T. 2017. Health in urban housing policies in the Western Cape: investigating housing policies to address infectious and non-communicable disease epidemics. Western Cape Government Provincial Health Research Newsletter. Issue 9. 

Thesis/Dissertations

  • Weimann, A. 2021. Intersectoral policy approaches to healthy cities with a focus on built and food environments. PhD Thesis. University of Cape Town.
  • Weimann, A. 2016. The use and disaggregation of survey data to study the cross-sectional and spatial distribution of multimorbidity and its association with socioeconomic disadvantage in South Africa. Masters Dissertation. University of Cape Town.

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