This article presents several questions, reflections and suggestions on pre-service and in-service teacher training that arose during the project "Curricular innovation and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa". While recognizing that the situation in the nine countries taking part in the project, and in many other countries in the southern hemisphere, is marked by a huge lack of teachers, with the attendant urgency and pressure, it must also be stated that the economic and social status of teachers is not always equal to the needs of the schools and societies. In this project on the place of the school in poverty alleviation and the promotion of peace, the role of the teachers was soon seen to be crucial. The analysis of the common areas of the demands made on teachers from the northern hemisphere and of the specific needs and realities of the countries from the south enabled us to start building possible responses in the short and medium term in the countries where Education for All (EFA) is not yet a fully fledged reality.