Despite significant investments in agricultural technologies and innovation systems, the uptake of emerging technologies in smallholder livestock systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains low. Traditional agricultural transformation strategies have been mostly technology-oriented and one-size-fits-all approaches that often do not reflect the socioeconomic, institutional, sociocultural, digital, and environmental realities of smallholder livestock farmers’ lives. Consequently, many innovations, such as digital advisory platforms, artificial insemination technologies, commercial feed systems, veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, precision livestock tools, and other input-intensive interventions, are out of reach, too expensive, ill-suited, or not sufficiently responsive to local production conditions and farmer priorities. In this study, we propose that the key barrier to the uptake of livestock innovation in SSA is not the absence of technologies, but rather a systemic “Fit Gap” between the design of new agricultural innovations and the realities of smallholder livestock systems. The Fit Gap is a multidimensional mismatch of economic, institutional, digital, sociocultural, and environmental factors that constrain the uptake, sustainability, and scale-up of livestock technologies in resource-constrained farming systems in developing countries. Through a systematic narrative literature review of Scopus-indexed literature between 2020 and 2026 and evidence from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia, this study identified four interconnected dimensions of misalignment: (1) economic barriers related to affordability and financial risks; (2) institutional and digital barriers related to weak extension systems, inadequate infrastructure, and unequal digital access; (3) sociocultural exclusion related to limited integration of gender perspectives and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS); and (4) environmental incompatibilities related to climate variability, droughts, feed shortages, and ecological stressors. This study proposes a Fit-Oriented Agricultural Innovation Framework based on participatory co-design, affordability, climate resilience, gender inclusivity, contextual adaptation, and adaptive institutional support. The framework emphasizes the need to integrate Indigenous Knowledge Systems, climate-smart livestock practices, and inclusive digital innovations to improve the relevance, accessibility, and sustainability of livestock technologies. The study concludes that sustainable livestock transformation in SSA requires a shift from technocentric models of modernization to context-responsive, socially embedded, and resilience-oriented innovation systems that position smallholder farmers as active co-creators of innovation.