Are you working on a startup or innovation which aims to improve legal systems in Southern Africa? There’s still time left to get your application in for this year’s Hague Institute for Innovation of Law’s Justice Accelerator, which you can find online at www.innovatingjustice.com.
Response to the 2017 call for applications across Southern Africa has been fantastic, and we’ve spent the last two months speaking to scores of people involved in all the disparate faces of legal innovation. From improving access to information to reporting corruption, digitisation of courts to Lawyers 2.0, there’s a common understanding that the way justice works can and should be better.
But we still want to do more.
The Justice Accelerator supports innovations across a broad range of themes from people, startups, lawfirms and the world of academia. Specifically, we look for innovators working on the following ‘justice pain points’: Employment, Family Justice, Migration and Human Trafficking, Law Enforcement and Crime, Land and Property Rights, and Neighbour Disputes.
Successful applicants to the 2017 programme will receive specialised business support, as well as a seed grant of up to 20 000 Euros. More importantly, you’ll also be invited to The Hague for a special week-long Justice Entrepreneur school, and be introduced to our network of potential partners and investors to help you scale.
But you only have a week left to apply. Applications close on Friday 30 June, and are exclusively handled at www.innovatingjustice.com.
Enter today, and please feel free to share the call with your network – we want to find and support as many innovators in the region as we can!
Still got questions? Scroll down to see a few examples of last year’s startups for inspiration.
Adam Oxford — HiiL Innovating Justice Agent: Southern Africa +27 (0)74 2394 383 www.innovatingjustice.com
Some initiatives HiiL worked with 2016:
FarmingBay – has managed to get feedback and improve their solution by working and testing their solution with a selected pilot group of farmers and traders. HiiL’s support advice and mentorship has helped FarmingBay create a team and execution strategy for the coming months.
Citizen Justice Network – has extended its reach to an office in Ficksburg, on the border with Lesotho (a country entirely landlocked by South Africa). This means their radio programming is gaining fascinating insights into the xenophobia and citizenship disputes facing this area. Citizen Justice Network is also developing a second series of their podcast Alibi (a South African version of “Serial”) – listen to the first series at www.alibi.org.za.
DIYLaw – exited beta and launched their new website end of January 2017. In the last 6 months, they have registered over 200 businesses. They have, also, finalised partnerships with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund and Fate Foundation, and are in advanced discussions with Diamond Bank and Guarantee Trust Bank. Exploring B2B strategies in the next couple of months for their next growth phase and plan to embark on fundraising mid Q3/Q4.
Lawyers 4 Farmers – has reached over 200 smallholder farmers in Northern Uganda.Through their SMS based platform, farmers receive basic legal information in their local languages and instant response to queries they submit. In partnership with Africa Agribusiness Academy, Lawyers 4 Farmers shall roll out to 6 other regions of Uganda and also set up a micro legal insurance scheme for their farmers.
Famalia – has been able to move from ideation to a working prototype. They have partnered with the High Court of Kenya in Kiambu, which is actively using their Case Management System with over 1300 cases uploaded. Interested parties can now get the status of their cases via SMS instead of travelling to the court registry, thereby saving time and money.
