Education systems are complex and involve many diverse actors. In order to have an impact on children's outcomes, policies and programmes must take on this complexity. Most education interventions are centrally designed, yet, in increasingly decentralized systems, they need to be adopted -- and often undergo adaptation -- at multiple levels of governance before reaching students in the classroom. A growing body of evidence is finding that the gap between policy and actual practice is a significant barrier to system-wide education transformation in Africa. To support African education policymakers and partnerships, this paper is the final part of a series aimed at contributing to the discussion on education transformation in Africa by synthesizing research conducted by UNICEF Innocenti on education in the continent. It focuses on the governance and accountability structures and processes involved in the implementation of education policies in Africa. In the first section, this paper discusses the governance structures and the role of accountability at the central level. It examines the importance of cross-sector partnerships and the relative strength of accountability structures in the private, rather than the public, school sector, before arguing that to achieve transformative outcomes, these structures need to be strengthened in all sectors. The second and third sections of the paper discuss the different local actors -- including local education offices, school committees and school leaders -- and how they can work together to support quality teaching and learning in the classroom. These sections also present several positive practices from schools and countries across Africa. Finally, the third section discusses the role of harmonized data systems, data use and implementation research in continuous quality improvements to achieve transformative outcomes. Overall, the insights in this paper have four key implications for education policy and planning: (1) Implementation planning; (2) Clarity of mandates; (3) Context-responsive resourcing; and (4) Data and implementation research.