Accessibility and effectiveness of justice delivery have been a concern in the Ugandan legal industry for years. This begs the question: can technologically-driven innovations actively impact the delivery of or enhance access to justice?
Access to justice means access to quality and affordable legal services as a means to achieve human rights, gender equality, and sustainable development. A maid who can get leave to visit her family because she is helped to know her employment rights. Brothers and sister eat every night because their father is paying their mother maintenance support on time, each month as approved by the court. A new entrepreneur wins against a corrupt local boss because he can rely on the courts to hear his evidence about how he came to launch his new product. Employment, family, neighbours, land and crime; all areas in which people regularly encounter need(s) for legal solutions.
Several factors, however, limit access to justice, especially true for vulnerable groups. Factors individuals can’t do much about by themselves: such as high levels of illiteracy, corruption within judicial institutions, gender-related barriers and weak enforcement of existing laws. Institutions that are mandated to address these problems are hindered by the limited capacity of staff and resources and a host of other factors.
With regards to justice delivery, the norm is traditional avenues such as the courts of law and other institutions like the police, justice centers and legal entities/firms. The question remains, however, whether these institutions are able to provide efficient, effective and accessible justice to those people who are in need of it.
Young, tech-savvy Uganda is ready for innovation
Ugandans are embracing technology and steadily catching up with the rest of the world. Innovation and self-starting entrepreneurs are sprouting up daily in cities, and increasingly reaching out to markets nationally.
Innovation for justice issues, however, is an area of exploration that has not been given enough attention. Why do I think so? Especially in relation to access to justice, through justice innovation it is possible to bring justice to people and to ensure that the most pressing justice needs are catered for as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible! Take JusticeBot for example. JusticeBot provides real-time online legal procedure information on land problems to Ugandan people through common chatting platforms like Facebook, Messenger or even WhatsApp.
Rather than just sharing updates with connections, Justice Bot responds to queries and stories to recommend the user to a lawyer with the right expertise upon request. It works. JusticeBot has been able to reach a total of 4020 users of their solution responding to over 7000 requests in a period of just 4 months since December 2018. A chatbox is an extremely cost effective innovation to start to addressing an access to justice gap.
Well that sounds great! Where are all these great ideas coming from?
If you are someone who wants to innovate justice what can you do? Whilst traditional startups are mushrooming around the country, justice solutions and knowledge about them are usually never part of the picture. The ecosystem for justice innovation is small: most people have never heard of it.
That is where HiiL comes in.
HiiL offers educational programs that support entrepreneurs passionate about solving our most pressing justice needs. Justice problems cannot be prevented or resolved overnight; change takes many years. Our mission is to create more potential for legal and justice innovation in Uganda, that leads to the resolution of more justice problems. One such example to achieve this is the upcoming Innovation Fast Track. This entrepreneurship and innovation training course is specifically designed for the most promising entrepreneurs based in Kampala, with creative ideas that address access to justice challenges in Uganda.
Innovation Fast Track Training: What is it?
This training provided over six weeks, is a business focused modular training which builds the capacity of the entrepreneur to critically evaluate and validate their idea. It also gives us at the HiiL Justice Accelerator the opportunity to provide the groundwork that will contribute to a more organized and well-purposed group of entrepreneurs with improved, effective, safe, fast and easy to access modes/innovations that bring about justice for the people.
If you or some team that you know are interested, please apply for this training before 7th June, 2019 by email to racheal.ampaire@hiil.org with the email subject: Justice Innovation Fast Track Application.Justice innovations need time to grow and scale so they can reach more people. Along the way, there are many obstacles in their path. Connecting potential innovations with the best expertise in innovation, the jutsice sector and technology can change the survival of these new initiatives dramatically. We have seen it, and we will share this with you too. www.hiil.org/hja
Access to justice means access to quality and affordable legal services as a means to achieve human rights, gender equality and sustainable development. Several factors however limit access to justice, especially true for vulnerable groups. Factors individuals can’t do much about by themself: such as high levels of illiteracy, corruption within judicial institutions, gender related barriers and weak enforcement of existing laws. Institutions that are mandated to address these problems are hindered by limited capacity of staff and resources and a host of other factors.
With regards to justice delivery, the norm is traditional avenues such as the courts of law and other institutions like the police, justice centers and legal entities/firms. The question remains, however, whether these institutions are able to provide efficient, effective and accessible justice to those people who are in need of it.
Young, tech-savvy Uganda is ready for innovation
Ugandans are embracing technology and steadily catching up with the rest of the world. Innovation and self-starting entrepreneurs are sprouting up daily in cities, and increasingly reaching out to markets in rural areas.
Innovation for justice issues, however, is an area of exploration that has not been given enough attention. Why do I think so? Especially in relation to access to justice for the people in Uganda, through justice innovation, is possible to bring justice to people and to ensure that the most pressing justice needs of the people are catered for as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible! Take JusticeBot for example. It is one of many innovations that bring justice to the people. JusticeBot provides real-time online legal procedure information on land to people in need of legal service in Uganda through a Justice chatbot and recommends lawyers with right expertise upon request. JusticeBot has been able to reach a total of 4020 users of their solution in a period of 4 months (December-April), which is commendable. With innovation, the numbers speak for themselves.
Well that sounds great! And if I want to get involved…?
So if you are someone who wants to innovate justice what can you do? Whilst traditional start ups are mushrooming around the country, justice solutions and knowledge about them are usually never part of the picture. That’s where HiiL comes in.
HiiL carries out educational programs that support entrepreneurs with a passion for solving our most pressing justice needs and one such example is the upcoming Innovation Fast Track. The innovation fast track is an entrepreneurship and innovation training course. This course is specifically designed for the most promising entrepreneurs based in Kampala, with creative ideas that address access to justice challenges in Uganda.
Innovation Fast Track Training: What is it?
This training provided over the eight weeks, is a business focused modular training which builds the capacity of the entrepreneur to critically evaluate and validate their idea. It also gives us at the HiiL Justice Accelerator the opportunity to provide the groundwork that will contribute to a more organised and well purposed group of entrepreneurs with improved, effective, safe, fast and easy to access modes/innovations that bring about justice for the people.
Not all justice problems cannot be prevented or resolved overnight. Change takes many years. Justice innovations need time to grow and scale so they can reach more people. Along the way, there are many obstacles in their path. Our mission is to create more potential for legal and justice innovation in Uganda, that leads to the resolution of more justice problems – as soon as possible.
If you or some team that you know are interested, please apply for this training before 7th June, 2019 by email to racheal.ampaire@hiil.org with the email subject: Justice Innovation Fast Track Application.
