Amy Barnes

Amy's research focuses on politics/policy, participation, and health equity. She is interested in government and civil society action to address wider determinants of health.

In the UK, Amy has explored initiatives that aim to empower people to have more influence in decision-making about where they live and in their lives (e.g. Big Local community initiative, neighbourhood planning, coproduction in commissioning). She has also led a comparative project exploring policy approaches to public health across the four countries of the UK and works with community partners to support public health action within local neighbourhoods (e.g. community cohesion, air pollution, green space, early cancer prevention).

Internationally, Amy has worked on issues of aid, health equity and governance. She recently worked with partners in Ghana and Kenya to implement the INFORMAS Food EPI: a civil society-led process to assess government action to create healthy food environments. She is currently working with partners in Pakistan and Canada on a study of the scale up of 24/7 round-the-clock maternity care for women in Basic Health Units (BHU) in Punjab.