In 1983, while still at university, Ploumen became a community outreach worker in the Crooswijk area of Rotterdam. Two years later she joined the Institute of Psychological Market Research, a research-based consultancy, working in the statistics department as a research project leader. From 1990 to 1992 she was a marketing and research manager for Foster Parents Plan in Amsterdam. Ploumen then moved to Plan, the London-based umbrella organization, in 1993. In 1995 she founded Ploumen Projecten, an organization specializing in market research and innovation for commercial and non-profit clients. Ploumen was director of Mama Cash and worked for Cordaid as head of quality and strategy and subsequently as director of international programmes.
Political career
Ploumen became a member of the Labour Party in 2003. She was the chairwoman of the Labour Party from 6 October 2007, after she beat former minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the EnvironmentJan Pronk with 54% of the votes. She resigned from this post on 22 January 2012 and was succeeded by Hans Spekman. Ploumen served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the second Rutte cabinet from 5 November 2012 until 2017. Early on in her tenure, Ploumen and Secretary of State of FinanceFrans Weekers submitted a proposal in 2013 to renegotiate the Netherlands’ tax treaties with 23 least-developed countries. Their move was widely seen as marking a turning point for a country that long deflected accusations that it is a key player in tax avoidance by multinational corporations. With their proposal, Ploumen and Weekers followed the recommendations of a government-commissioned report which, for the first time, agreed with tax-justice groups that developing countries miss out on substantial tax revenues because of their treaties with the Netherlands. During her time in office, Ploumen increased the Netherlands’ support to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, from €200 million to €250 million for period from 2016 until 2020. Between 2014 and 2016, she co-chaired the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-Operation. She also served a two-year term as member of the World Bank Group’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development from 2015 until 2017. In January 2016, Ploumen headed an official Dutch delegation to Cuba, including some 60 businesses. During the trip, it was announced that global consumer products company Unilever would return to Cuba after a several-year absence, agreeing to build a $35 million soap and toothpaste factory in Cuba’s special development zone at the port of Mariel west of Havana. Most notably, however, Ploumen started the "She Decides" campaign, an initiative of about 50 countries, organizations and foundations to finance global family planning initiatives after a U.S. halt to such programs left NGOs worldwide with a large funding gap. Within six months the organization received pledges worth USD 300 million. As minister, she pledged 10 million euro to counter the Mexico City policy. Following the 2014 European elections, international news media widely considered Ploumen one of the candidates for the nomination to become the Netherlands’ member of the European Commission; the post eventually went to Frans Timmermans. In the Dutch elections in 2017, in which the PvdA won nine seats, Ploumen was tenth on the electoral list, but due to preferential votes still won a seat in the Dutch House of Representatives.
