#BuildwithAT #WeloveNerds #WomenInTech

Overview:

Access to justice and civic participation shouldn’t depend on owning a smartphone. Join Africa’s Talking Women in Tech Nairobi for an exciting hackathon focused on Legal and Policy Advocacy! This hackathon focuses on tools that make legal information, advocacy, and accountability reachable for everyone through Africa’s Talking channels.

Access to justice and rights information is uneven across the continent, and the people who most need legal help are often those least able to reach a lawyer or navigate official processes. A simple, private channel can be the difference between knowing your rights and not.

Participants can build rights-education flows, legal-aid hotlines, case and document tracking, anonymous reporting, and advocacy mobilisation. The brief is wide: make law and policy more transparent, navigable, and reachable for ordinary people using Africa’s Talking APIs (SMS, USSD, Voice, Airtime and Data, Insights, Chat and more).

Why Attend?

• Make legal information and rights education universally accessible.

• Enable confidential reporting and advocacy mobilization.

• Support legal aid through reminders and crowdfunding.

Key Focus Areas:

Know-your-rights menus:

• Legal-aid directories and rights information from any phone. 

• API Link: USSD API

Case status & court reminders:

• Inform people of hearings, deadlines, and updates. 

• API Link: SMS API

Anonymous reporting:

• Confidential whistleblowing and incident reporting. 

• API Link: USSD API

Legal helplines:

• Voice lines connecting people to counsel. 

• API Link: Voice API

Civic education campaigns:

• Reach citizens with rights and policy awareness. 

• API Link: SMS API

Petitions & mobilization:

• Let citizens sign petitions and join actions. 

• API Link: USSD API

Target Attendees:

This hackathon is open to:

• Software Developers and Engineers

• Data Scientists and AI Enthusiasts

• Students and Technology Enthusiasts

• Stakeholders in the legal space and policy makers

• Legal and Policy Advocates

• Anyone passionate about technology, law, and policy

What to Expect:

🚀 Hands-on Building: Work on innovative ideas and create working solutions.

🤝 Networking: As a member of our community, you'll have the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, potential collaborators, and industry professionals. Build valuable relationships that can propel your career or projects to new heights.

💡 Learning Opportunities: Explore Africa’s Talking APIs and discover how they can power your solutions.

🎤 Mentorship: Get guidance and feedback from experienced technology professionals.

🏆 Recognition and Rewards: Showcase your project and stand a chance to win exciting prizes and recognition.

Solution Criteria:

• Use of Africa's Talking APIs: How effectively the project utilizes one or more of the Africa's Talking APIs i.e. SMS, USSD, Airtime, Voice, Insights, Chat.

• Innovation: The originality and creativity of the project idea and implementation.

• User Experience: How well the project meets user needs and provides an intuitive and seamless experience.

• Functionality: How well the project performs the intended functionality and handles errors and edge cases.

• Presentation: The clarity and effectiveness of the project demonstration and pitch.

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Publish on Africa's Talking Marketplace

Marketplace : Publish your plugin/app for our customer and Call Back as a Service

Developer Documentation (We welcome feedback)

THEME: Legal and Policy Advocacy

The winning solution will receive cash prizes as follows:

• Winner - $100

• 1st Runners Up - $50

• 2nd Runners Up - $25

Social Media give-aways too!

More exclusive prizes and giveaways to attendees.

Contribute to open-source.

Agenda:

1. Introductions

2. Overview

• Technical hands-on session

3. Ideation

• Form teams where need be.

• Feedback

4. Building/hacking: Code in GitHub/GitLab/BitBucket and deploy in Docker/Automated CI/Travis CI/Bamboo

5. Demonstration and Wrap-up

• Teams or individuals will demonstrate what they have hacked for feedback or adoption.

Note: Carry a laptop

Opportunities:

• Network

• Innovate

• Access to our Talent bench (You can get a job or a gig on the spot)

Submit your Idea:

• Hackathon idea submission form

Join our community channels:

• Community Page:

  • Join Africa's Talking Women In Tech Community here

• Twitter (X):

  • Follow Our Page on X here

Africa's Talking powers communications solutions across Africa with simplified access to telco infrastructure, developers use our powerful SMS, USSD, Voice, Airtime and Data, Insights, and Chat APIs to bring their ideas to life, as they build and sustain scalable businesses.

Africa's Talking community allows developers to learn skills for the modern-day African Developer. We are language and framework agnostic. All developers are welcome. This is where Africa's Talking developers community meets to build, learn and exchange knowledge.

We are helping software developers and businesses to bring their ideas to life through easy-to-use APIs quickly.

Would you like to partner with us? Kindly contact the Women in Technology Team. 

Everyone is welcome!

Transport:

• Those who register by Monday 24th August 2026, will receive a transport code to redeem for transport to and from the hackathon venue.