Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) 2016 Innovating Justices Challenges Competition

HiiL (The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law) is an organisation that seeks to facilitate justice through new technologies, knowledge on conflict resolution, and new forms of organisation and governance. They work with courts, legal aid boards, NGOs, ministries and companies responsible for innovative solutions that can cause systemic change. Through their justice innovation challenges, they have funded various startups with ideas that can empower sectors in Africa.

Applications are invited from qualified candidates for:

2016 Innovating Justices Challenges Competition

HiiL Justice Accelerator, in collaboration with Ford Foundation, has announced that submissions are now open for this year’s "Innovating Justices Challenges Competition". This competition occurs yearly and it funds the brightest ideas and businesses centred on access to justice.

The last we heard of this competition was when three ladies won the competition for their idea in SME empowerment. This year, the Challenge will focus on 'SME Empowerment and Family Justice'.

Last year’s SME Empowerment challenge saw ShopOfficer (Kenya), Msme Garage (Uganda), and DIYlaw (Nigeria) emerge as finalists winning $10,000, $20,000, and $40,000 in seed funding respectively.

Objectives

• The SME Empowerment Innovation Challenge, targets ideas and businesses that address the problems facing SMEs in Africa. These problems include employment issues, corruption, intellectual property protection, management issues, employee rights, bureaucratic red-tapes, amongst others. This challenge is for East and West Africa..
• Meanwhile, the Family Justice Innovation Challenge, is for ideas and businesses that seek to empower families across Africa by tackling challenges such as property inheritance, marriage, divorce, child care, domestic violence and adoption. Interested participants in this category should visit here.

How it Works

• At HiiL we introduce new solutions for specific legal topics. To promote innovation in the rule of law and to find the best innovations across the world, the HiiL Justice Accelerator issues challenge competitions.
• This is to promote systemic change in focus areas, such as Legal Tech, Family Justice, Living Wages, and SME empowerment.
• Every year, the most promising innovations receive an Innovating Justice Award, access to funding and professional support to accelerate their impact.

Schedule Innovating Justice Awards 2016
Call for Justice Innovations: March-June 2016:

• First, we launch a call for innovations. This year, the call for innovations will launch in March. The submission deadline is '30 June 2016'. To submit your innovation you must first create an account.
• Don't forget to follow the link to the Selection Form that is part of the online application procedure. We create a shortlist of the most promising innovations based on your selection form. The selected projects are then published on our website.

Shortlist selection process Criteria:

• We only accept innovations that are submitted between 1 March and 30 June 2016, 12 midnight CET.
• You can only submit one innovation per Challenge. Make sure to read more about the Challenge you want to submit for on the Challenge-pages: SME Empowerment Challenge and Family Justice Challenge.
• Innovations will be assessed on the basis of your answers as given during the submission, including the (internal) Selection Form.
• We encourage you to answer all questions, be very clear and concise in your answers, and use numbers or figures where possible.
• Our main assessment criteria are:
  • Scope: is the innovation a justice solution? (Find out more here.) Does it align with the justice needs of the Challenge you apply for? Is it impacting lives in our focus areas/countries?
  • Uniqueness: does your innovation provide a distinctive, new solution to a real justice need?
  • Impact: will your innovation solve a justice need for a large number of people or businesses, in ways that they could not have imagined before?
  • Sustainability: how (financially) sustainable is your innovation? If it isn’t sustainable yet, we will explore potential ways of future sustainability.
  • Scalability: can your innovation be introduced in other regions, countries or to different customer groups?
• We care a lot about your team (composition), because we believe that the justice entrepreneur makes the innovation. Make sure to tell us enough about your founders and/or team.

Online Campaign - August 2016:

• The shortlisted innovations campaign online to gather votes and support for their innovation. The top two innovations of the online campaign from each Challenge, together with four wildcards from each Challenge, will progress to the next selection phase.

Finalist Selection - September 2016:

• At the end of September, finalists from the online campaign and wildcards will be invited to a local Boostcamp, depending on the Challenge you participate in.
• More information about this year’s Boostcamp(s) will appear on the website in due time.
• During the Boostcamp the candidates will already practice their pitches. A jury of experts will select three finalists from each challenge.

Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing - October to November 2016:

• All the finalists are invited to the Innovating Justice Forum, taking place on 2-3 December in The Hague.
• In the weeks running up to the forum, finalists will also be able to crowdfund for their projects and attract volunteers to support their justice innovations. This means that none of the innovators at this stage will go home with empty hands "More information about the crowdfunding phase will appear on the website in due time".

Innovating Justice Forum - December 2016:

• On 1 and 2 December the finalists will be able to compete for the Innovating Justice Awards 2016 at the Innovating Justice Forum
• The winners of the Innovating Justice Awards will win acceleration funding, expert advice, international showcasing and access to HiiL's networks.
• This year's acceleration funding will amount to EUR 80.000 per challenge, which will be divided among the winners.

Personal Preparation and Alignment:

• Prior to the Boostcamps and the Forum, the innovators will be personally prepared to pitch their innovation. This will include helping to identify their main opportunities and challenges.
• During the crowdfunding phase, HiiL and Next2Company will also help connect (align) the finalists to potential partners to support their business.

Acceleration and Validation:

• Right after the Forum, the winners of the two Challenges will stay in The Hague for a introduction-to-validation week. During this introduction week, the innovators will be connected to a business mentor/agent and follow several workshops to set up their validation- and impact plans.
• Further collaboration modalities are outlined in an agreement between the innovators and the HiiL Justice Accelerator.
• After the innovators return to their home countries, an intensive validation phase of minimum 6 months starts. During this period, innovators will receive advice and guidance by business- and impact mentors in order to validate the business model and grow impact.
• Part of the acceleration funding will be dependent on progress made during this phase.

International Network:

• The finalists will have access to an international network, to build international partnerships and learn from other attendants at the Forum.
• The innovators present their innovation to an international audience and gain international recognition.
• During and after the Forum, innovations will receive support for media- and press showcasing.

Access to further investment:

• Since 2012, the HiiL Justice Accelerator has unlocked almost €400,000 for the most promising innovative ideas in the justice sector. HiiL leverages on its coalitions and networks to connect top notch legal innovations to investors.
• Depending on the stage of progress of the innovations after validation, we do our best to attract further investment for these businesses.

Prize
The winners of each category this year will stand the chance of winning EUR80,000 in seed-funding.

Application Closing Date
30th June, 2016.

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