III 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 578 

Supporting the role of the United States in ensuring children in the world’s 

poorest countries have access to vaccines and immunization through 

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 13, 2014 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. COONS, and Mr. BOOZMAN) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the role of the United States in ensuring children 

in the world’s poorest countries have access to vaccines 

and immunization through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. 

Whereas, prior to 2000, the distribution of, and the resources 

for, vaccines for children in the developing world were declining, immunization rates were stagnant or decreasing, 

and nearly 30,000,000 children born in the developing 

world each year were not fully immunized; 

Whereas, prior to 2000, it was common for new life-saving 

vaccines to take up to 15 years to be introduced in the 

world’s poorest countries; 

Whereas access to routine immunization and vaccines protect 

children from deadly but preventable disease and conVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Nov 14, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR578.IS SR578

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tribute to national economic growth and poverty reduction by ensuring people live longer, healthier, and more 

productive lives; 

Whereas, in 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 

United States, the United Nations Children’s Emergency 

Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, the 

World Bank, bilateral partners, developing countries, the 

private sector, including the vaccine industry, civil society, and other partners joined forces to create a publicprivate partnership called the Global Fund for Children’s 

Vaccines (now Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance) in order to expand access to new and underused vaccines and support 

the introduction and scale-up of these vaccines into routine immunization systems in the world’s poorest countries; 

Whereas partnership and sustainability are at the core of the 

Gavi model by requiring eligible countries to contribute 

financing to some portion of their vaccine costs and directly invest in immunizing their children; 

Whereas, by 2012, more than 65 developing countries working with Gavi were co-financing new and underused vaccines and more than 20 countries are projected to graduate between 2016 and 2020, moving toward fully funding their national immunization programs; 

Whereas Gavi has transformed the market for vaccines by 

pooling demand from developing countries matched with 

secure, predictable financing to make vaccines more affordable and their supply more reliable, and encouraging 

research and development of new vaccines; 

Whereas, as a result, Gavi has played a critical role in increasing the number of global vaccine manufacturers sellVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:23 Nov 14, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR578.IS SR578

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ing to the world’s poorest countries from 5 in 2001 to 

13 in 2014; 

Whereas the price for the pneumococcal vaccine, which prevents pneumonia, is now more than 90 percent lower for 

Gavi-eligible countries than elsewhere, and the price of 

rotavirus vaccines, which prevents diarrhea, is 67 percent 

lower in Gavi-eligible countries; 

Whereas, with innovative financing mechanisms like the Advance Market Commitment and International Finance 

Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), Gavi ensures that 

appropriate and affordable vaccines are available 

throughout the developing world; 

Whereas Gavi supports the financing and delivery of 11 vaccines, including those against pneumococcal disease and 

rotavirus, the leading vaccine-preventable causes of pneumonia and diarrhea, which kill more children under the 

age of five than any other disease; 

Whereas Gavi collaborates closely with the Global Polio 

Eradication Initiative on the final push to end polio, 

strengthening and bringing the inactivated polio vaccine 

into routine immunization programs; 

Whereas strong immunization systems are critical to ensuring 

continuous coverage and sustainability of new and routine immunization programs in implementing countries; 

Whereas Gavi supports the strengthening of health systems 

and local civil society organizations to ensure effective 

immunization and health services; 

Whereas, since 2000, with support from the United States, 

the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the 

World Health Organization, the World Bank, implementing countries, donor governments, the private sector, 


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and other donors and partners, Gavi has supported country-led vaccine roll outs in 77 countries to support the 

immunization of an additional 440,000,000 children and 

will avert an estimated 6,000,000 deaths in the world’s 

poorest countries; 

Whereas, in 2013, Gavi was ranked the second most transparent aid program in the Aid Transparency Index, behind only the Millennium Challenge Corporation; 

Whereas, even with significant contributions by Gavi, only a 

small percentage of young children worldwide receive all 

11 life-saving vaccines universally recommended by the 

World Health Organization; 

Whereas vaccines are widely regarded as one of the ‘‘best 

buys’’ in global health and recognized as one of the most 

efficient, cost-effective, and successful health initiatives in 

history; 

Whereas, in 2012, leading experts on health economics 

ranked childhood immunization as one of the three most 

cost-effective solutions to advance global health; 

Whereas, as one of the initial six donors, the United States 

has been an important supporter of Gavi and through the 

generosity of the people of the United States has contributed almost $1,200,000,000 for the acquisition of life 

saving vaccines; 

Whereas, at Gavi’s first pledging conference in June 2011, 

the United States increased its support and pledged 

$450,000,000 for fiscal years 2012 through 2014 to increase access to new and underused vaccines, including 

pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines; 


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Whereas, in addition to this three-year pledge, the United 

States contributed an additional $90,000,000 to Gavi in 

fiscal year 2011; 

Whereas United States investment in Gavi complements and 

enhances the effectiveness of other bilateral and multilateral United States investments in global health, particularly in child survival; 

Whereas Gavi is committed to working with partners, including United States bilateral programs run by the United 

States Agency for International Development (USAID) 

and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

(CDC), to ensure children in developing nations have access to vaccines and immunizations; 

Whereas, in June 2012, the United States Government, together with the Governments of Ethiopia and India as 

well as UNICEF, mobilized the world around the goal of 

ending preventable child deaths by 2035; 

Whereas access to immunizations is a key component of 

reaching that goal; 

Whereas, in May 2014, at the World Economic Forum meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, African leaders pledged to increase 

investment in their countries’ immunization programs by 

endorsing the Immunise Africa 2020 leaders’ declaration; 

Whereas, on May 20, 2014, Gavi called on donors to support 

an ambitious plan to immunize an additional 

300,000,000 children against potentially fatal diseases 

and save an additional 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 lives between 2016 and 2020; 

Whereas Gavi needs donors to invest an additional 

$7,500,000,000 to support immunization programs in developing countries from 2016 to 2020; 


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Whereas, at the same time, implementing countries are expected to co-finance an additional $1,200,000,000, an increase from almost $500,000,000 in 2011 through 2015; 

and 

Whereas, with this support from donors and the global vaccine community, Gavi can reach its 1,000,000,000th child 

with critical vaccines by the early 2020s, nearly double 

the number of lives saved since its founding, and unlock 

between $80,000,000,000 and $100,000,000,000 in economic benefits through health care savings and productivity gains: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) commends Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the 

3 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Na4 tions Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the 

5 World Health Organization, the World Bank, civil 

6 society, the private sector, faith-based organizations, 

7 the international community, and implementing 

8 countries on the progress that has been made on re9 ducing child mortality through the increased avail10 ability and distribution of vaccines; 

11 (2) affirms the continued support of the people 

12 and Government of the United States for the pur13 chase of vaccines for the world’s poorest countries 

14 through Gavi as a cost-effective, efficient means to 

15 reduce child mortality and as a critical component of 

16 meeting the United States goal to end preventable 

17 maternal and child deaths; 


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1 (3) supports the ideals and goals of Gavi to— 

2 (A) accelerate equitable uptake and cov3 erage of vaccines; 

4 (B) improve the effectiveness and effi5 ciency of immunization delivery; 

6 (C) improve sustainability of national im7 munization programs; and 

8 (D) shape markets for vaccines and other 

9 immunization products; 

10 (4) upholds that the United States is a critical 

11 donor in its work with other donors to perform dip12 lomatic outreach in seeking additional funding for 

13 Gavi in order to leverage its commitment; 

14 (5) recognizes that the United States, in addi15 tion to being an important donor, is a critical tech16 nical partner to Gavi, and the impact of United 

17 States investments to Gavi is leveraged by providing 

18 direct technical assistance to implementing countries 

19 and global bodies; 

20 (6) encourages the continued use of United 

21 States Agency for International Development 

22 (USAID) maternal and child health and Centers for 

23 Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) global immu24 nization resources to strengthen local public health 

25 capacity to introduce and sustain new and underutiVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:32 Nov 14, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR578.IS SR578

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1 lized vaccines, that are supported by Gavi, through 

2 routine immunization systems; and 

3 (7) encourages continued commitment and in4 vestment by the United States Government and 

5 international donors, through Gavi, to the global ef6 fort to ensure that children in developing nations 

7 have access to vaccines and immunizations. 

Æ 


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