Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) is a SADC initiative, which aims to assist SADC Member States to mainstream care and support into their education systems and ensure that schools in the SADC region become inclusive centres of learning, care and support where every learner, especially the most vulnerable, can learn. One of the CSTL initiative’s strategic objectives is to increase learning and knowledge of care and support strategies across the region. To contribute to this, the SADC Secretariat will develop a regional research agenda on care and support for teaching and learning. This research agenda will provide guidance for coordinated, harmonized research that is relevant to issues of care and support for teaching and learning in the region and is driven by the Member States. To contribute to the development of the regional research agenda, a scoping study was carried out in four of the five Member States engaged in CSTL Phase 1: Swaziland, Zambia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The purpose of the scoping study was to identify relevant national research agendas, research gaps and priorities, good practices and lessons learnt, as well as potential research partners. A second objective of this scoping study was to analyse research challenges within and among Member States: that is, challenges which might need to be addressed through regional collaboration and mutual support, such as the development of the regional research agenda.