HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control SYNOPSIS Series:

Gender-Sensitive Initiatives

This SYNOPSIS booklet discusses the importance of Gender-Sensitive Initiatives (GSIs) through a holographic approach. Holography is a special photographic technique that produces images of three dimensional objects. This photographic record is called a hologram, and one of its main applications is that any fragment of the hologram can regenerate the entire image, even if the fragment is extremely small. In other words, if a negative from an ordinary picture is cut into two, the print from each half would only show half of the picture. Conversely, if a holographic negative is cut in two, the print from each half would show the entire picture. If these halves are cut again, the print from any one of the pieces will reconstruct the whole picture.

We anticipate that the Holographic Overview of Gender-Sensitive Initiatives will benefit both the seasoned professional and the novice. It provides a quick, general overview of GSIs as well as context and background. It also directs the reader to specific sections that may be of greatest interest or that the reader would like to review first or at a later date. Thus,we hope this approach will enable the reader to make fuller use of the booklet as a reference guide, as it provides a simple and concise definition of GSIs, a brief description of the topic, a summary of the discussion, and finally, the complete text — all in one document.