Applications are being accepted for this year’s edition of the Innovating Justices Challenges competition organised by HiiL Justice Accelerator and Ford Foundation. As usual the competition seeks to fund access to justice-focused bright ideas and businesses.
This year, organizers said the focus is on SME Empowerment and Family Justice.
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 and so on. Applications are being accepted from East and West Africa here.
The winner will get EUR80,000 in seed-funding and applications will close on June 30.
This year, organizers said they are looking for:
-
Solutions that provide equality of opportunities for entrepreneurs to start a business
-
Services that secure better and affordable intellectual property rights for SMEs
-
Fraud- and corruption fighting tools that apply to businesses
-
Contract-enforcement mechanisms for businesses
-
Solutions that empower labour rights within the (informal) SME sector
-
Platforms that provide cost- effective and customized legal services for businesses (i.e. registration, legal advice, compliance, contracts, IP protection)
-
Data- and information sharing tools geared at legal needs of SMEs
-
Projects that promote enabling legislation, regulations and policies applying to SMEs
Last year, the first place winner of the 2015 SME Empowerment Challenge is DIYLaw, a venture of three female lawyers who provide a platform for small business owners in Nigeria to register their business, find legal documents or resources, and engage with lawyers.
mSME Garage won the second prize of the 2015 SME Empowerment Challenge. Based in Kampala, mSME garage reaches out to the masses of small (informal) business owners in Uganda by providing free legal information and guidance in various stages of business-growth.
Third prize winner ShopOfficer tackles the issue of fraud and theft among small shopowners, as it empowers SMEs with a smart accounting tool. The mobile app allows business owners in Nairobi to account for every sale in real time whilst making this information available to every staff.
