Originally from Spain, Helena Puig is the co-founder and co-director of Build Up. Alongside three peers, she founded Build Up in 2014. Positioning themselves as a peace-building organisation, Build Up is active in countries like Syria, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Myanmar. Leveraging digital technologies in conflict transformation work and deeply understanding the impact of technology on our societies, to implement interventions that transform conflict with more connection, collaboration, and inclusion. It has over a decade of experience supporting peace innovators across the globe, designing and implementing technology interventions for peacebuilding processes that address divisions in society and analyzing AI-driven polarization. The organisation works with actors across the entire peace process — governments, institutions, local communities, direct victims — a holistic approach, acting as the bridge between all.
The Problem and Focus
The problem for Build Up is clear: the process of peacebuilding is hierarchical and exclusive. One that widens the gap between those responsible for governance and those on the ground directly being impacted. Ultimately, this gap leads to problems of participation and there persists a lack of buy-in from the victims of conflict. With this acknowledgement, Helena and the team focus on identifying organisations, people, or groups, who may, in some capacity, already have a connection to peace processes. Together, they work to develop a theory of change and analyze alternative entry points for innovative intervention. Partners are identified two ways:
1. Open and international calls for collaboration and innovation.
2. Collaborating with organisations like Interpeace, the United Nations, the British Council and others to identify local partners.
Through each partnership, Helena and the team design creative interventions to bring hard-to-reach populations into peace processes.
The Impact
Under Helena Puig's leadership, Build Up has made significant strides in reshaping how peacebuilding is approached by national governments and international institutions alike. By combining digital tools with participatory methodologies, the organization has helped shape the current policy conversations toward greater inclusivity and transparency. A practical example of this impact is Helena's work on the Polarization Footprint; a concept often compared to the Carbon Footprint. This innovative tool is designed to hold digital platforms accountable for their ongoing role in fueling division, intolerance, and hostility online.
Aware that these platforms prioritize engaging content, Helena developed the Polarization Footprint to spotlight and measure these dynamics, aiming to drive systemic change in how digital influence is managed. Her work continues to influence governments and multilateral agencies, pushing them to adopt more locally-informed, bottom-up approaches to conflict resolution — moving away from the traditionally top-down models that often exclude grassroots’ voices. Shaping how UN bodies, international NGOs, local governments respond to peace-processes, Helena continues to be a changemaker in the world of conflict resolution and digital inclusion.
Learn more
To discover more about her work, visit Build Up