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Civic Tech & Governance

Country Observers (COMoG): A Governance Platform Built for Trust

A secure, compliance-first platform for a Ghanaian governance watchdog handling sensitive civic reports and donor data.

01 / Overview

Country Observers Mission on Governance (COMoG) is a Ghanaian think tank and NGO researching and advocating for policy reform across economic governance, anti-corruption, energy and climate policy, and social policy. Nerds IV built the platform it runs on.

02 / The challenge

COMoG's work means handling sensitive data — citizen governance reports, donor and member information — for an organization whose watchdog role makes it a plausible target for tampering or data exfiltration. The platform needed to support anonymous public reporting, donations, and membership dues, all under Ghana's Data Protection Act 2012 (Act 843), while giving staff only the access their specific role requires.

03 / What we built

  1. 01Anonymous-friendly governance report submission with rate limiting and hashed IP tracking, so people can report issues without exposing their identity
  2. 02A hash-chained audit log covering logins, report status changes, and donor-list access, so tampering is detectable after the fact rather than invisible
  3. 03Role-based staff access (Super Admin, Content Editor, Report Reviewer, Donor & Finance Manager) so each role sees only what it needs
  4. 04A Data Subject Request workflow built around Act 843's access, correction, erasure, and objection rights, with a 30-day response window enforced automatically
  5. 05Donation and recurring membership-dues payments via Paystack

04 / Where it stands

Live at countryobservers.org, built in phases with security and Act 843 compliance treated as first-class requirements throughout rather than added after the fact.