Social capital and collective action initiatives provide important avenues for access and uptake of improved livestock technologies through communal breeding programs among resource poor communities in developing countries. This study examines the factors that influence collective action behavior in crop-livestock and pastoralist production systems in Kenya by employing a binary logit model. The results show that age, gender of household members and education level of the household head exert significant influence on the decision to take up collective action. In addition, wealthy households are less likely to participate in collective action initiatives compared to the resource constrained. These results suggest that policies that encourage group formation may be effective in targeting improvement in livelihoods of poor populations through access to improved livestock.