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Justlers and Gamechangers: Meet the Justice Accelerator 2021 Cohort

Since the launch of the Innovating Justice Challenge 2021 in mid-March, our Justice Accelerator team has been on the lookout for the new generation of Gamechangers in Justice Innovation. From Tunis to Nairobi, from Lebanon to Lagos, and from Johannesburg to Kyiv, 18 innovations made the final selection from 7 countries after a rigorous selection process, a Bootcamp and 5 Pitch Events.

HiiL is proud to present to you the 2021 cohort of Justlers. Discover these game-changing innovations, and how they address user-friendly justice in their part of the world.

Online information, advice and representation platforms

Online information platforms comprise the majority of the innovations in this year’s cohort, with 61%.

Digilex Qanouni

Country/ Region: Tunisia, MENA | Justice problem addressed: Public sector issues | Female founder: Yes

Stemming from the belief that “Democracy starts with access to information,” and “a knowledgeable citizen is a less vulnerable citizen,” Qanouni (Arabic for “my law” provides access to all legal resources in Tunisia (laws, regulations, and case law) through a strong search engine. 

KYR Africa

Country/ Region: Kenya, East Africa | Justice problem addressed: Family, Employment, Micro & small enterprises | Female founder: No

Given that 37.6 million Kenyans have unmet justice needs (Kenya Law Review), KYR (Know Your Rights) Africa supports middle-to-low income Kenyans who are unable to access affordable and convenient forms of justice for their different justice needs, by providing comprehensive legal advice and resources on rights by promoting civic and citizen education to lead to action. 

We Are More

Country/ Region: Kenya, East Africa | Justice problem addressed: Crime issues | Female founder: No

Started as student movement in the University of Nairobi, Mombasa campus, in 2016; We Are More works with the most vulnerable Kenyan citizens – women & youth- providing them with a digital legal aid platform that connects citizens to advocates and mediators in order to resolve their legal disputes, and enhance their civic education and engagement. 

Chaya Legal

Country/ Region: South Africa| Justice problem addressed: Family issues | Female founder: Yes

Chaya Legal developed Legal Ascent to assist DIY Executors who face poor estate planning by the deceased (eg. no Will was left), resulting in family tensions about inheritances issues and property ownership transfers issues. Legal Ascend is an online tool designed to assist executors, master’s representatives and agents to administer a deceased estate quickly and easily. 

Avocat

Country/ Region: Nigeria, West Africa | Justice problem addressed: Crime, Land, Neighbour, Housing & Employment issues | Female founder: No

With the average Nigerian left vulnerable to arbitrary detention, evacuation or other abuses due to the limited legal aid and protection they have access to, Avocat offers Nigerians quick legal aid in emergency situations via their mobile app. 

LegalFundi

Country/ Region|: South Africa | Justice problem addressed: Micro and small enterprise issues | Female founder: Yes

Statistics indicate that 50% of the SMEs in South Africa do not know or cannot afford the legal assistance needed to do what needs to be done to register and obtain formal compliance, discouraging them. LegalFundi is simplifying legal and regulatory processes to ensure compliance and unlock opportunities in the startup ecosystem by offering SMEs simplified compliance documents in the price range of one hour with an attorney. 

Think Help Restore (THR) Media

Country/ Region: Nigeria, West Africa | Justice problem addressed: Family issues | Female founder: Yes

THR Media is a social enterprise that uses technology and media to support 18-55 years old Nigerian female survivors of rape, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, or Single mums battling custody rights or child support, both in urban and suburban communities across Lagos, Abuja, and Calabar.  The THR app ensures they access a centralized ecosystem of psychosocial support, legal aid, shelter placement, economic empowerment, with services provided online and onsite.

Molao365

Country/ Region: South Africa | Justice problem addressed: Family, Land, Neighbour, Housing & Employment issues | Female founder: Yes

Molao365 offers a simple solution to a complex problem. Most low-income South Africans need legal advice, rather than actual legal representation in court. Therefore, Molao365 focus provide low-income South Africans with free legal advice via a mobile application, in local South African languages, by qualified and experienced lawyers. 

Clarity App

Country/ Region: Ukraine | Justice problem addressed: Public sector issues | Female founder: No

Clarity App compiles that open data that is published by different authorities in different places and in different formats, usually unorganised, feeding it back in a user-friendly manner to citizens, companies, and even government agencies who need the systematization of open data to be able to analyze it and make the right decisions.

Consultant

Country/Region: Ukraine | Justice problem addressed: Family, Consumer, Public sector and Employment issues | Female founder: No

Consultant works directly with Ukranians struggling to find the right, affordable lawyer for their legal issues, by providing a mobile application to get a legal service online in a few clicks from only verified professionals, at a fixed price.

Prevention programmes

At 16.7% of our cohort, Prevention programmes is the second largest category of Gamechangers in this year’s cohort:

HouseAfrica

Country/ Region: Nigeria, West Africa | Justice problem addressed: Land issues | Female founder: No

With an average of 500,000 Nigerians losing money to property fraud annually, HouseAfrica created PropVat: A modern, affordable, user-friendly online property verification system. HouseAfrica helps financial institutions and individuals validate properties before investment or purchase – Hence, mitigating fraud, reducing risk, and increasing access to credits. 

Upesy

Country/Region: Kenya, East Africa | Justice problem addressed: Crime issues | Female founder: No

Upesy offers Kenyan mobile users of all income brackets access to responsive, reliable and affordable emergency response services at the click of a button, including a platform to share real-time location with the authorities in case of emergency. 

Vindex Systems

Country/ Region: Kenya, East Africa | Justice problem addressed: Crime issues | Female founder: No

According to the Kenya Police crime report, 14,000 motorcycles are lost each year through theft and robbery. By leveraging on the Internet of Things (IoT), Vindex Systems focuses on tracking and recovering stolen assets, namely motorcycles and  taxis widely used for commercial transport in Kenya.

User-friendly contracts

The third-largest category of Gamechangers reflected in this year’s cohort is User-friendly contracts:

Kleva Contracts

Country/ Region: South Africa | Justice problem addressed: Micro & small enterprise issues | Female founder: Yes

SMME’s in South Africa are poorly catered to by expensive, unfriendly or geographically inaccessible lawyers, resulting in avoidable business failures and litigation. English is the primary language used in business but it is spoken by only 8.2% of people, therefore legal services in English alone exclude many SMME’s. Kleva Contracts solves this by providing online legal services and a legal education in multiple South African languages resulting in more sustainable businesses and higher employment.

Legal Design

Country/ Region: Ukraine | Justice problem addressed: Housing and Consumer issues | Female founder: Yes

Legal Design aim to simplify the legal world. They make documents such as Terms of service, Privacy policy, and Cookie policy clearly understandable on websites for the users. This significantly minimizes the risk of violating the rights of the user. The same applies to such contracts as rent, where they greatly simplify the legal text, and include drawings to make certain conditions clearer, thus ensuring there can be no abuse in the contract.

Claiming services

Civitas Digital

Country/ Region: Tunisia, MENA | Justice problem addressed: Public sector issues | Female founder: No

Complex processes, long deadline and lack of transparency have made municipal services a heavy burden for both municipalities and citizens in Tunisia. Civitas Digital intervenes by granting  citizens an online application to access the municipal services at any time in full transparency and at a fraction of the cost.

One-stop dispute resolution

Binayati

Country/ Region: Lebanon, MENA | Justice problem addressed: Housing and Neighbour issues | Female founder: No

Binayati is an accounting and communication solution that provides access for tenants to all financial reports related to their building to assure transparency, in addition to access to common laws ,regulations and procedures related to buildings and neighborhood, and an organized way for communication between tenants.

Overview of the 2021 cohort composition

The figures below provide a bird’s eye view of the 2021 cohort division by region, female founder, justice problems addressed, and Gamechanger category:

Further reading:

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