UNESCO has launched a high-priority Initiative on Teacher Training in sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) for 2006-2015.

This Initiative will assist the continent’s 46 sub-Saharan countries in restructuring national teacher policies and teacher education. It aims to increase the number of teachers and improve the quality of teaching. Seventeen countries are participating in the first phase of the initiative.
Seventeen countries are participating in the first four-year cycle of the Initiative as initial reference countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia.

TTISSA is to be country-driven, and based on country needs and priorities identified by each Government and UNESCO. National information mapping missions are being implemented to evaluate national teacher education situations and to assess the roles, activities and impact of donors, other UN agencies and regional agencies. For sustainability and ownership, a full-time national coordinator, proposed by the concerned country and selected by UNESCO, guides the Initiative at the national level over 4 years. Where most appropriate TTISSA will link and create synergies from the other core Initiatives: the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) and the Global Initiative on Education and HIV and AIDS (EDUCAIDS).

Report by the Director-General on the Follow-up to the EFA Strategic Review and UNESCO's Strategy for the 2005-2015 Period