Gender dynamics of a Rift Valley fever vaccination campaign for livestock in pastoral Kenya

In pastoral communities, seeking animal health services for livestock is a male-dominated activity. Women are not always recognised as livestock keepers and face restrictions on interacting with men outside their households. This mixed-methods study qualitatively identified barriers to women's access to vaccines, tested a gender-accommodative intervention in a Rift Valley fever vaccination campaign serving 909 households, and assessed impact on women’s decision-making, financial contributions, and number of livestock vaccinated. In half of the vaccination sites, local government implemented co-designed interventions to improve communication with women. There was no improvement of the target indicators, indicating the intervention was insufficient to address barriers like restrictive gender norms and safety concerns. About half of women reported contributing financially to the vaccination of animals in their households and were more likely to contribute when the household heard about the vaccination campaign through word of mouth, suggesting that informal communication motivated women’s support for vaccination.