Applications open for HiiL Innovating Justice Challenge 2020

The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) Southern Africa is looking for startups that are developing sustainable, scalable solutions to pressing justice needs to apply for the HiiL Innovating Justice Challenge 2020.

Winning ideas will be selected to attend the HiiL Justice Accelerator.

The accelerator offers a four-month programme that provides €10 000 non-equity, non-debt, funding, business development support, access to a global network, international exposure, and connections for further investment opportunities for startups.

HiiL is looking for promising innovations that are already showing measurable impact, have the potential to become financially sustainable and have the plans and ambition to scale across different markets. These enterprises should furthermore be led by a strong team with experienced and inspiring founders.

Winning ideas from the HiiL Innovating Justice Challenge 2020 will be selected for support through the HiiL Justice Accelerator

Applications closes at 23:59 Central European Time on 5 August.

In a statement yesterday, HiiL Justice Accelerator Southern Africa co-head Themba Mahleka commented that access to justice underpins every other right and sustainable development goal.

“This is the fifth year that we’ve run the Innovating Justice Challenge in the region, and we’ve seen the enthusiasm for innovation in the sector grow and grow.

“This year, as a result of Covid-19, it’s become even more important to identify and support those startups and organisations which are modernising access to justice, and help them to reach more people, more quickly,” said Mahleka.

HiiL has supported more than 110 justice innovations worldwide since 2011. Some of those have impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and scaling to a regional level with the potential to become global players.

“In our experience, justice innovations can come from all sectors of society,” says Mahleka, whose experience in this field spans many years.

“Some are aimed at reducing the cost of legal services or access to courts, others are designed to support informal mechanisms of dispute resolution between families, traders, landlords and tenants or more.”

Examples of startups that we have supported in the past include a mobile app that educates people about their employment rights, a website with automated contracts for SME’s, a mobile application to anonymously report crime, and a website that explains how to purchase and transfer land titles. All were able to grow into successful businesses with the HiiL Justice Accelerator.

HiiL will hold a webinar on 17 June to discuss what makes a good justice innovation and answer questions about the HiiL Justice Accelerator.

Featured image: AJEL via Pixabay