POLICY AND ADVOCACY
NAZ addresses sexual health inequalities through influencing policy and practice in the UK and beyond. Grounded in the core understanding that accessible and equitable health care is a human right and a social justice issue, we advocate for our communities' needs to local governments, Parliament, and health providers with the aim of sharing best practice and ensuring appropriate service provision.
We engage in global health capacity building and policymaking as the secretariat of the Global HIV Collaborative. Through this network, it is our aim is to improve HIV-related health outcomes for Black communities on an international scale and advocate for the structural eradication of racism embedded across the social determinants of health.
In order to achieve change, we undertake research to provide an evidence base to influence policy, contribute to policy consultations on sexual health matters and carry out service evaluations.
To learn more, email Christina Ganotakis, Policy and Insights Manager.
HIV STIGMA is a social justice, human rights, and public health issue. Zero HIV Stigma Day is a global movement uniting people and communities to raise awareness of HIV and take action to eliminate HIV stigma in all its forms. July 21st is a day of action featuring communities living with and affected by HIV, activists, clinicians, influencers, and civil society organizations.
unheard voices
The joint National AIDS Trust and One Voice Network report “Unheard Voices: Understanding the landscape of London HIV commissioning and community involvement of Black African and Caribbean communities” is out now. NAZ is proud to be a member of the One Voice Network and a contributor to this report, a report that underlines the need and advantage of using co-production in service development and commissioning practices.
BACK 2 BLAQUE
A former European policy network and thought leadership arm of NAZ. Its aim was to better understand how to respond to health inequalities within Black and minority communities, in an effort to apply this thinking to reduce HIV, sexual and reproductive health inequalities.
BAME INEQUALITIES IN HIV
Despite making up less than 20% of England's population, Black, Brown and Global Majority people account for more than 50% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2022.
People of colour & PrEP
In the midst of rising HIV transmissions, PrEP isn't reaching BAME populations.
HIV Late Diagnosis
Statistics from Public Health England estimate that around 1 in 14 people living with HIV in the UK remain undiagnosed while 43% of people diagnosed in 2018 were diagnosed late, which is after damage to the immune system has already begun.
END IT NOW
Eradicating new HIV transmissions by 2030 won't happen unless we address rising socioeconomic inequalities: 1 in 5 of the general population live in the UK's most deprived areas, but almost half of Black, Brown, and Global Majority people do. Its impact on health opportunities and access to healthcare cannot be understated.
In September 2024, Naz joined with The Pleasure Project to officially become a Pleasure Endorser. This means that we commit to incorporating pleasure as an essential element of our sexual health advocacy.
We made the following pledges:
Action 1: Develop a collaboration with youth groups as a part of our programme to extend our work into youth spaces, in which we train both staff and young people on pleasure-based sexual health
Action 2: Ensure that our social media viewers and service users are told about safer sex being pleasurable and relaxing
Action 3: Ensure our social media communications materials are inclusive, respectful and rights-based and amplify pleasure-centered health messaging