2025
ANNUAL OVERVIEW
2025: 35 years of impact—Onwards and upwards!
hera turned 35 in 2025, which has brought along with it some profound reflection on all we have accomplished, and how much more there remains to be done. The year was marked by stronger internal foundations, growing partnerships, and continuing our steadfast determination to the right to health and development for all. As we do every year, we’ve highlighted some of our standout projects and broken down our work in numbers below.
In 2025, we deepened and broadened our commitments to acting with integrity, putting people first, and protecting the planet by becoming a Certified B Corporation, a global recognition that reflects our adherence to rigorous social and environmental standards and our dedication to using business as a force for good. Our commitments are grounded in a range of influential frameworks that hold us accountable and guide our decisions, including the UN Global Compact, which holds us to universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, the Women’s Empowerment Principles, which promote gender equality both within our organisation and in the communities where we work, and the Youth in Evaluation Manifesto, which supports meaningful engagement of young professionals, alongside our ISO 9001:2015 certification, which demonstrates our commitment to quality management, consistency and continuous improvement in how we deliver our work. Together, these commitments shape how we work, connect us to a global community driving health, equity and sustainability and reinforce our belief that we should leave the world better than we found it.
As a cooperative, employee-owned organisation, hera ensures that every perspective counts—from our founding scholars to local associates across the Global South. Each year, an increasing number of team members become hera shareholders, strengthening our collective voice and fostering a culture that reflects our shared values.
35 years in, we have witnessed a lot of change and turmoil, and last year was no different. Early in 2025, we lost our dear CEO Leen Jille and continue to feel the impact of his absence daily. The tumultuous state of the world weighs heavily on our shoulders, and we are striving to stay supportive to our colleagues and friends experiencing conflicts firsthand. In challenging times, the strength of our cooperative spirit remains essential. A shared commitment to health and well-being, and to supporting one another in times of need, has, and will always continue to guide our actions.
As we look to the year ahead—and to the next 35 years—we do so grounded in the lessons learned through this year’s strategic reflections and with a sharper focus on where our efforts can be most impactful. As a team, we are becoming more deliberate in our daily choices, prioritising work that aligns with our strengths, values and the greatest potential for meaningful change.
We are sincerely grateful for the continued trust and collaboration of our clients, employees, associates and partners. We look forward to a healthy and productive year ahead, rich with new opportunities.
In solidarity,
Marieke Devillé (Director)
2025 hera Highlights
In 2025, hera continued to expand its diverse portfolio, always with a sharp focus on improving health systems in humanitarian contexts. Our work focused on addressing systemic challenges and ensuring that vulnerable populations receive the care they need essential services, reducing financial hardship, and embedding gender equality across health and infrastructure sectors.
Key efforts included working with UNICEF on two major projects: Evaluating UNICEF’s work in global primary health care and contributing to a study on factors shaping adolescent nutrition and mental health in Latin America, offering new insights into the behavioural drivers and lived experiences of young people.
hera forefronts initiatives that reflect our commitment to advancing health and protection for vulnerable populations. In Liberia, we partnered with NCG on the Perception Survey on Social Norms on Access to Safe Abortion, providing evidence to drive policy reform. Across South and Central America, we teamed up with IPPF under the Safe Passage Programme to address heightened risks of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and gaps in sexual and reproductive health services for migrants. We also completed a multi-country study on the effects of gender inequality on midwives' capacity to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality.
In collaboration with a consortium of partners, hera concluded a six-year assignment to monitor and evaluate the DESIP programme, unique model of collaborative monitoring which aimed to improve family planning and reproductive health outcomes in Kenya. In parallel, hera supported CHAI’s efforts to improve access to reproductive health commodities, providing a series of actionable recommendations.
We supported two midterm reviews to strengthen evidence-based planning and implementation: the National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN) 2021–2025 in Laos and SUCCEED Africa, focused on mental health and psychosocial disabilities. We also contributed to the development of Suriname’s Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) 2026–2030, designed to respond to the country’s evolving health and development context, shaped by demographic transitions, socio-economic challenges, environmental vulnerabilities, and persistent health inequities. These projects highlight hera’s role in guiding strategic decision-making and supporting resilient, context-driven health systems.
Finally, hera contributed to global efforts to reduce financial hardship in healthcare, aligning with universal health coverage goals and reinforcing the importance of affordability in health system design.
As we close 2025, we celebrate the partnerships and collaborations that made these achievements possible. Looking to the year ahead, hera continues to engage in a diverse range of ongoing projects that reflect our commitment to evidence-informed decision-making and strategic support across health, development, and gender equality. Our work spans evaluations of national and international programmes, including SRHR initiatives in Belgium, adolescent health in Tanzania, and urban primary health care in Bangladesh, as well as assessments of global initiatives such as the Being Initiative and the UNICEF HDP Nexus. We are supporting capacity development and strategy design, from Relief International’s medical supply programme to Liberia’s national nutrition strategy. Gender-focused research in Bangladesh and SRHR advisory support to donors, including Sida, Norad, and the European Commission, further demonstrate our focus on strengthening systems, advancing equity, and providing actionable insights.
We invite you to dive deeper into these initiatives, and more, through the links below.
2025 by the numbers
24 partners,
4 associates, and 8 staff
hera’s Areas of Expertise
hera brings together an international team of multidisciplinary experts whose combined skills cover health, human rights and development, from research and programme implementation to strategy development, monitoring, evaluation, learning and policy engagement. In 2025, the 100 external contractors we worked with were almost evenly split by gender—51% women and 49% men. Last year, nearly half of the consultants were based in Europe, but the spread became a little more global in 2025: 37% were based in Europe, 29% in Africa, 13% in North America, 9% in South and Central America, 10% in Asia and 2% in Oceania.
This year, we engaged on 97 projects which cover everything from development strategies and evaluation of humanitarian aid to universal health coverage, from assessing nutrition, mental health, and gender-related barriers to care to social protection, from reproductive and maternal health to shaping, assessing, and studying family planning and reproductive health programmes and national and regional health strategies.
Increasingly, hera is taking a more intentional approach to where we focus our expertise, supported by strengthened systems to track the thematic areas of our work. This has enabled a clearer view of our portfolio and allows us to engage more deliberately and precisely across priority areas.
Of our 59 active contracts, 36% focus on health governance, health economics and financing, and health systems; 20% on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); and 15% on primary health care, service delivery and immunisation. A further 12% of projects address pharmaceutical systems and access to medicines, while 9% concentrate on mental health. Humanitarian aid currently accounts for 3% of our work, with 3% focused on social protection and 2% addressing inequalities.
35 years of global experience
Working on 97 projects
In 35 countries
Thematic areas
Clients
Connect with hera
We invite you to stay engaged with our work and updates throughout the year. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with our latest projects, achievements, and industry insights. And slowly but surely, we are growing a community Bluesky , and we’d love you to join the conversation.
For updates, job opportunities and more, click here to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.
