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The fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) aims to ensure better learning opportunities and outcomes and more equitable and inclusive education for all. SDG target 4.c calls for an increase in the supply of qualified teachers, particularly in low-income countries. To achieve this ambitious target, the international community needs to pay renewed attention to teacher support and preparation.

This advocacy brief considers what it will take to increase the supply of qualified teachers in sub-Saharan Africa, the region where the teacher shortage is most acute. It analyses the causes for teacher shortages, looks at trends affecting the region and describes the scale of the shortages. It examines the fiscal pressures on low-income countries to cover salary costs and the costs of initial teacher education and continuing professional development, and it proposes some recommendations for governments and the international community to achieve the essential target of substantially increasing the supply of well qualified teachers.