We do this by developing policy, influencing decisionmakers, and forming strategic partnerships to advance our work in ending new HIV transmissions. We work with legislators, researchers, policymakers, and service providers to help them to understand and address the needs of our communities.
We have been advocating for LGBTI communities and for people living with HIV from the very beginning of the epidemic, and the organisation’s inception in 1985. Our focus is on responding to key issues in HIV policy and advocacy as and when they come up, while mapping out future challenges and opportunities.
Our work focusses on a broad range of issues as they impact on both the prevention of HIV and other STIs, as well as care and support for people living with HIV, including:
If you have any questions about NZAF’s policy and advocacy work, would like to feed into our work or have policy issues which you think should be brought to our attention, please contact our Policy and Science Team at [email protected]
NZAF prepares a range of resources as part of our HIV and public health policy work to inform the work that we do. These resources include policy position statements, background briefings and issues papers.
Our Position Statements outline NZAF’s strategic position on central aspects of our Strategic Plan and can be accessed here.
In 2020 we developed a Briefing to the Incoming Parliament. The briefing identifies three priorities to focus efforts to drive down HIV incidence and respond to resurgent STI epidemics.
We have also highlighted immediate actions that can happen now to scale up combination HIV prevention in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We regularly advocate on issues relating to HIV or issues pertinent to our communities through submissions to local councils, government departments, PHARMAC, and MedSafe to name a few. The issues we submit on relate to HIV and STI prevention, support for people living with HIV, and the health and wellbeing of communities affected by HIV. In recent years we have seen the removal of the CD4 threshold for treatment access for people living with HIV, applying for PrEP to be publicly funded by PHARMAC, and the funding of a wider range of condoms.
Here are some of our recent submissions: