Why gender-intentional programmes are key to livestock systems development

Posted on 2026-03-252026-03-25 by team galvmed

Livestock are more than productive assets—they are a critical source of income, nutrition, resilience, and opportunity for millions of people across Africa. Yet the benefits of livestock production are not experienced equally.

Women are at the heart of livestock care and yet they continue to face significant and persistent barriers to accessing veterinary services, inputs, finance, information, and decision-making power. Overlooking these gendered dynamics is not only detrimental to achieving equality —it also undermines the effectiveness, reach, and sustainability of livestock development efforts.

Recognising this, applying a gender lens to livestock programmes is not an optional add-on, but a strategic necessity. In 2025, GALVmed launched VITAL 2, a five-year programme to improve ruminant vaccination rates in Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria. The programme works through private sector-driven approaches to strengthen markets for high-quality vaccines while complementing government vaccination efforts. Crucially, VITAL 2 is a gender-intentional investment, designed to ensure that gender-related barriers and norms are identified and addressed so that women are not excluded from the benefits of ruminant vaccination as markets and delivery systems expand.

The gender component is fully integrated into VITAL 2’s delivery model, with the aim of improving understanding of the barriers and norms affecting vaccine uptake and identifying how project components can adapt to better include and benefit women.

A Structured and Evidence-Based Approach

The VITAL 2 gender plan includes targeted activities in selected sites that explore gender-transformative approaches. A three-country gender landscaping exercise in Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania will provide the foundation, mapping the technical and socio-institutional barriers to livestock vaccination, alongside the norms shaping these systems. It will also identify the most meaningful intersecting factor within in each community- such as age, ethnicity, religion, membership within cooperatives and conservancies – that shape women’s experiences and inform where gender transformative activities (GTAs) can be most effectively implemented.

Building on this, the targeted GTAs will be run in selected exemplar sites, where community dialogue and norm-shifting activities can be tested in structured environments. The purpose is to generate a comparative understanding of what works, for whom, and under what conditions.

Alongside these GTAs, an action research and evaluation agenda will track shifts in decision-making, household dynamics, participation in vaccination, and women’s ability to access services. A suite of gender indicators will be measured through baseline and endline surveys, supported by qualitative research that captures stories of change. This mixed methodology will allow VITAL 2 to monitor not only whether women are more involved in vaccination but also how these shifts are experienced and sustained within households and communities.

The insights from this research will offer practical evidence on norms and barriers, and potential responses that can inform VITAL 2 delivery teams and partners, while also contributing to a clearer understanding of how gender dynamics affect uptake in low-coverage contexts, ensuring women are not overlooked in the expansion of ruminant vaccination.

Integrating a gender lens into livestock programme design is not just a matter of equity—it is a pathway to more effective, sustainable, and impactful interventions that achieve stronger outcomes.

Gender-intentional programmes like VITAL 2 help ensure that livestock systems deliver benefits for everyone, enhancing animal health, productivity, resilience, and livelihoods across communities. By doing so, we move closer to livestock development that is inclusive, transformative, and capable of creating lasting impact.

Showcasing Impact: GALVmed Key Achievements

Posted on 2026-03-202026-03-20 by team galvmed

For small-scale livestock producers in the global south, a goat, cow, or flock of chickens are not just animals – they are the foundation of their livelihoods. Livestock provide food, income, and security, and losing them to preventable diseases can be devastating.

In a world where over a billion people depend on livestock, improving animal health is critical not only to protect individuals but also to ensure sustainable agricultural systems, food security and safety, and entire communities’ well-being and progression.

GALVmed continues to collaborate with partners and key public and private stakeholders to transform the lives of small-scale producers across Africa and South Asia through improved animal health. Our approach remains the same: enhancing the availability, accessibility, awareness and adoption of high-quality veterinary medicines to reduce productivity and animal losses from preventable diseases. And how does this translate into tangible actions?

Improving availability: By researching, improving and developing much needed animal health products and solutions suited to the needs of small-scale livestock producers.
Increasing accessibility: By easing barriers in the regulatory and policy environment ensuring the needed products reach the markets and are accessible and affordable to small-scale livestock producers.
Increasing awareness and adoption: By using appropriate channels to reach the last mile providing information and veterinary medicines to small-scale livestock producers.
Increasing understanding: By providing practical data and information from the small-scale livestock producer field to measure impact and facilitate data-driven decisions.

Over the years, GALVmed through its partners, has implemented impactful programmes across Africa and South Asia, leading to significant achievements:

Approximately 8.6 million cumulative annual customers over the period 2014 – 2025. (*)
3.8 billion doses of livestock vaccines, therapeutics and other animal health products sold to small-scale producers across Africa and South Asia from 2014 to 2025.
Approximately US$157.9 million in poultry deaths averted, from 2014 to 2025.
16 products taken to full development since 2010.
24 products registered under the Mutual Recognition Procedure.
Over 100 publications disseminated.
US$583.2 million in total net economic benefits to SSPs from the sale of vaccines and animal health products. Of this, US$260.1 million represents additional net economic benefit generated through GALVmed’s efforts to expand market availability and catalyse new adoption.

GALVmed will continue to work closely with partners to make effective animal health products accessible across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, advancing our mission to safeguard livestock health to consequently improve human lives.

(*) This measure does not currently account for the same SSP customer buying products year after year, and therefore contains an element of double-counting for multi-year time series.

The EAC Mutual Recognition Procedure expands its scope

Posted on 2026-03-022026-03-02 by team galvmed

The East African Community Mutual Recognition Procedure (EAC MRP) is a cornerstone of regulatory harmonisation in African animal health. Established to streamline the registration of veterinary medicines across EAC Partner States, the MRP allows for simultaneous application of marketing authorisations in multiple countries, reducing registration times, increasing access to multiple markets, and therefore contributing to bringing quality animal health products to market quicker and easier.

The MRP has now taken an important step forward. Its mandate, which included veterinary pharmaceuticals and vaccines, has expanded to include ectoparasiticides, aquatic animal medicines, and animal nutritional supplements—broadening its impact and strengthening its relevance across both livestock and aquaculture sectors.

Over the years, the MRP has facilitated the registration of 24 high-quality veterinary products, reinforcing its value as a practical and trusted regulatory tool. Among these achievements is the registration of a quadrivalent Foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccine that protects against the circulating East Africa FMD virus serotypes.

The expansion of scope is accompanied by important technical updates. The pharmaceutical guideline has been reviewed to incorporate requirements for innovator products. In addition, the guideline for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspection of veterinary medicine manufacturers has been endorsed and is already being used. Applicants are advised to refer to the new guidelines, which are available here.

By providing a predictable and coordinated pathway for product registration, the EAC MRP continues to accelerate the availability of safe and effective veterinary medicines—supporting livestock productivity, safeguarding food security, and protecting the livelihoods of small-scale livestock producers across East Africa.