HiiL Innovating Justice Challenge 2018 for Entrepreneurs in Africa and Middle East

Application Deadline: 31st May 2018

Eligible Countries: The HiiL Justice Accelerator particularly encourages applications from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands.

To be taken at (country): The Hague, The Netherlands

Field of Award: The HiiL Justice Accelerator has identified a few key “pain points” across the world, in which areas we particularly encourage applications:

• Family Justice
• Land- and Neighbour Disputes
• Crime and Law Enforcement
• Employment Justice
• Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises

Note that if your innovation does not specifically address one of these areas, you are still eligible to apply! Simply make sure to tell us how your startup 1) addresses a specific justice need in your community; and 2) has some sort of a legal element.

About the Award: The HiiL Justice Accelerator finds and supports the world’s best justice entrepreneurs in order to create access to justice for all.
Between 40-50 startups, selected as semi-finalists, will be invited to pitch at local Boostcamps. This year’s Boostcamps will take place in Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Kampala, Kyiv, and The Hague. In some cases, startups may pitch by Skype or be brought to the nearest Boostcamp. Additionally, these semi-finalists will be guided through a “market validation” process.

Eligibility: 

• (New) Ventures with a strong potential of delivering concrete justice solutions for many people, including micro, small and medium-sized businesses.
• Innovative justice initiatives that are already making a difference and have the potential and ambition to scale internationally or to many more users.
• Unique initiatives that are solving the most pressing justice problems for people, based on evidence and data, in particular family, land, crime or employment issues.
• Ventures that are financially sustainable and have measurable impact.
• Innovative initiatives within existing justice systems or public institutions, spearheaded by driven intrapreneurs that want to see things work differently.

Criteria: who can apply?

• The founder and applicant should be 18 years of age or older.
• The venture must be committed to providing access to justice underpinned by evidence showing justice needs.
• The person(s) with whom we engage should be the founder or a co-founder of the organization and should be able to make key, high-level, and direction-shifting decisions (such as whether or not to take investments and who to partner with) on behalf of the entire organization.
• We can only accept innovations to be incorporated with a bank account in the name of the legal entity by the time they receive our grant funding.

Selection Criteria:

• Scope (is it a justice innovation? is it solving pressing justice problem)
• Impact
• Uniqueness
• Sustainability
• Scalability
• Team

Value of Award: Apply to receive seed funding, training and acceleration support, access to an international expert network and potential further investment opportunities.

How to Apply: Click here to apply

Visit Program Webpage for details

Scholarship Provider: HiiL