Innovators & Influencers

Meet Innovators & Influencers—a network of local rule of law experts available to help navigate the terrain and design activities in their countries and regions

Milena-1---Milena-Jenovai-300

Milena Jenovai

Former USAID/Serbia  •  Independent Rule of Law and Governance Consultant  •  LinkedIn Profile

Country & Regional Expertise

  • Serbia
  • Western Balkans
  • Europe and Eurasia 
  • Global

Technical Skills & Leadership

  • Judicial Reform & Court Administration
  • Justice Sector Budget & Financial Management
  • Access to Justice & Legal Empowerment
  • Digital Justice & Automation
  • Legal Education & Professional Development
  • Good Governance/Anti-Corruption & Public Administration
  • Public Integrity & Accountability

Favorite Justice Quote

“It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.” – Aristotle, Politics, Book III

Program Design & Management

With 20 years of experience in the Serbian justice sector, I design and manage complex justice, rule-of-law, and anti-corruption programs, transforming ambitious reform goals into practical and fit for purpose solutions that make sense to and empower the people who need them. 

Co-creation and human-centered and legal design thinking are central to my style and approach.I use them to ensure program design starts with understanding people’s real legal needs and experiences—not with prepackaged and ready-made solutions focused on institutional needs. This mindset has helped me bring diverse actors together to modernize an otherwise conservative justice system by making services more people-centered, fostering court–community dialogue, introducing digital tools, and improving efficiency.      

And because rule of law reform is as political as it is technical, I also apply political economy analysis to navigate resistance, build local ownership, and ensure justice reforms are both effective and sustainable.

As a program manager, I am hands-on, meticulously shaping work plans, tracking results, and problem-solving. I never lose sight of the bigger picture--justice reforms only matter if they improve people’s lives and reduce the space for corruption. This is the lens that I bring to every program I design and manage.

Innovations & Achievements

Rule of Law Ideathon – Hacking the Justice Gap: Designed Serbia’s first Rule of Law Ideathon, using co-creation and human-centered design to improve access to justice. Judges, lawyers, students, and technologists collaborated in small teams to build practical prototypes—mobile guides for court procedures, plain-language explainers for filings, and an accessible triage tool for first-time court users. Beyond these outputs, the real win was cultural: fostering collaboration and a spirit of innovation within the justice system to make services more problem-solving and user-friendly.

Open Court Days – Connecting Courts and Communities: Launched Open Court Days as community forums where citizens engaged judges and legal professionals in dialogue on local justice problems. Hosted in courthouses nationwide, sessions covered small claims, family law, and legal aid, featuring moderated Q&As and one-on-one exchanges. This initiative, part of a more comprehensive activity , dispelled myths, built trust, and yielded practical court improvements—clearer summons templates, better signage, and more accessible court information desks and website communication.

Backlog Reduction Strategy – Increasing Efficiency and Accountability: Coordinated development of Serbia’s first backlog reduction strategy to tackle roughly 800,000 pending cases. Mapped bottlenecks, set court-specific targets, introduced case management tools, and trained staff. The strategy aligned the Ministry of Justice, High Judicial Council, and court presidents to ensure ownership. Results included clearing hundreds of thousands of cases, reducing delays, and establishing a flagship reform cited in EU accession reporting—showcasing the power of data, practical tools, and institutional buy-in.

Most Significant Justice Innovation Obstacle

Institutional resistance to change — lack of openness from courts, ministries, or bar associations

Best Practice for Justice Innovation

User-centered design and legal design that involves communities and justice users in co-creating solutions to most pressing legal needs and justice problems.   

Most Promising Area(s) for Justice Innovation

AI/Machine Learning in Judicial Administration: Use predictive analytics, legal-assistant chat bots, or automated decision support to triage case loads and backlog, flag high-risk delays, or guide self-represented litigants in resolving disputes and protecting their rights. 

Rethinking Design, Delivery, and Financing of Rule of Law and Justice

Outcome-based “People-Centered Justice Compacts:  Link financing to a few user-focused results—such as faster small-claims resolution or higher rates of problems solved. Use Program-for-Results-style instruments and independent verification of outcomes. Combine collection and analysis of administrative data with justice-needs surveys, publish results dashboards, and provide funding only when verified results are achieved. This keeps investments tied to impact, not inputs.