HIV prevention interventions

The National African HIV Prevention Programme (NAHIP) is funded by the Department of Health and has been managed by the African Health Policy Network (AHPN) since 2001. The programme was designed to develop and implement a national response to the HIV prevention needs of Africans living in England.

NAHIP provides leadership and a source of expertise on national HIV prevention efforts for African communities. The programme works predominantly with African-led organisations to “minimise the number of sexual HIV acquisitions and transmissions involving African people living in England” and those people they come in contact with. Organisations are contracted as NAHIP agencies to provide a range of direct-contact HIV prevention interventions and structural services – some specifically targeted at Africans, others targeted more widely but including services to Africans.

NAHIP works with its agencies to produce a range of resources used in national prevention campaigns such as Beyond Condoms and Do It Right. The ongoing Do It Right campaign aims to address the prevention needs research has identified (including correct use of male and female condoms, challenging stereotypical gender roles and increasing self-efficacy).

The BASS Line surveys, described in the previous section, were conducted as part of NAHIP. Other projects have included training and seminars on research and best practice for those involved in designing and delivering HIV prevention interventions.

Moreover NAHIP partners, led by Sigma Research, have developed a national African HIV prevention strategy, The Knowledge, The Will and The Power (KWP)¹ and the accompanying African HIV Prevention Handbook: Putting The Knowledge, The Will and The Power into practice (see www.kwp.org.uk).²

The KWP documents provide a shared vision and approach to designing, researching and commissioning HIV prevention interventions, with the goal of minimising the number of sexual HIV acquisitions and transmissions involving African people living in England.

The strategy outlines the five priority target groups for direct contact interventions with African people:

• people with HIV
• partners of people with HIV
• people with multiple sexual partners
• partners of people with multiple sexual partners
• all African people who are (or will be) sexually active.

Moreover the document outlines the aims for interventions:

• reduce risk behaviours
• decline unwanted sex or have non-penetrative sex
• correctly use male or female condoms for intercourse
• establish HIV concordance with partners
• diagnose and treat STIs
• withdraw prior to ejaculation where concordancy is uncertain
• take PEP following HIV exposure
• conceive children safely.

The KWP Handbook is an implementation guide for KWP. It provides clear descriptions of prevention interventions, discussions of their limitations and clarity around prevention concepts to guide those who plan, deliver, fund and evaluate interventions.

These documents are the cornerstone of NAHIP and are shaping the direction for HIV prevention for Africans nationally. 

It should be noted that prior to the development of KWP, the Department of Health, the National AIDS Trust and AHPN published in 2005 a national prevention framework that has now been superseded: HIV and AIDS in African Communities: A Framework for Better Prevention and Care.³

Moreover, NAHIP does not constitute the only prevention activity with black African populations: other projects are implemented at a local or regional level.

For example, London has nearly 60% of the UK’s African population⁴ and a disproportionate need for HIV services and prevention initiatives. The African arm of the Pan-London HIV Prevention Programme has been commissioned by primary care trusts across London to meet these needs. A partnership of African community-based organisations, managed by Terrence Higgins Trust, deliver media-based projects, as well as health promotion skills training and organisational development support for community organisations.