Fast-Track Health, Global Black Gay Men Connect Sign MOU
WASHINGTON, DC, USA | 23 January 2026 — Fast-Track Health and Global Black Gay Men Connect (GBGMC) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing a strategic partnership to drive community-led, data-informed action to expand stigma-free sexual health and ART and PrEP access for Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) across the Fast-Track Cities network.
The MOU establishes a collaborative framework to strengthen people-centered, intersectional, and rights-based urban health systems that integrate sexual health, ART and PrEP access, mental health, and broader social determinants of health, while confronting stigma, discrimination, and structural inequities that continue to limit access to care.
Under the agreement, Fast-Track Health and GBGMC will focus on six core areas: expanding stigma-free sexual health and HIV services; accelerating progress towards the UNAIDS 95-95-95-95 and HIV prevention targets; embedding mental health and psychosocial well-being across the care continuum; addressing intersecting stigmas and social determinants of health; strengthening community-led monitoring and data equity; and advancing policy and governance advocacy at city and national levels.
“This new partnership with Global Black Gay Men Connect centers the priorities of Black GBMSM communities,” said Dr. José M. Zuniga, President/CEO of Fast-Track Health. “By combining community power with city-level action and data-driven accountability, we are advancing a whole-person, stigma-free model of urban health that is urgently needed.”
““This partnership with Fast-Track Health strengthens the integration of community-led expertise into city-level HIV prevention, treatment, and sexual health systems,” said Micheal Ighodaro, Executive Director of Global Black Gay Men Connect. “By aligning implementation, accountability, and local leadership, we aim to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of services for Black GBMSM and key populations across urban settings.”
Key joint activities outlined in the MOU include:
- City-level pilot programs in seven Fast-Track Cities to demonstrate best practices in integrated, community-led PrEP scale-up and whole-person care.
- A community-led monitoring framework to assess equitable ART and PrEP access and user experience for Black GBMSM, with data informing city dashboards and global reporting.
- A Global Black GBMSM Report to be released at the Fast-Track Cities 2026 conference in Berlin, synthesizing sexual health, ART and PrEP access, mental health, and stigma data.
- High-level engagement and visibility across major global convenings, including AIDS 2026 in Rio de Janeiro and Global Black Pride 2026 in Paris.
About the importance of the MOU, Zuniga and Ighodaro agreed that in a global health landscape fragmented by silos, their institutions’ new partnership prioritizes collaboration as a strategy, not a slogan. With defined goals, shared accountability, and measurable outputs, it shows how partnerships can translate alignment into action.
# # #
About Fast-Track Health: Fast-Track Health is a global health organization advancing integrated, person-centered responses to communicable and non-communicable diseases and the health impacts of climate change, aligned with the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. For more information about Fast-Track Health, visit: https://fthealth.org/
About Global Black Gay Men Connect: Global Black Gay Men Connect is an international network dedicated to advancing the health, rights, and well-being of Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men through advocacy, community leadership, and global solidarity. For more information about Global Black Gay Men Connect, visit: https://gbgmc.org/