[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 688 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 688

 Supporting the role of the United States in ensuring children in poor 
  countries have access to vaccines and immunization through the GAVI 
                               Alliance.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 25, 2014

 Ms. McCollum (for herself, Mr. Reichert, Mr. Engel, Mr. Crenshaw, Ms. 
  Bass, Mr. Diaz-Balart, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. 
Smith of Washington, Mr. McCaul, Ms. Esty, Mr. McHenry, Ms. Speier, Mr. 
 Ross, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Hall, Mr. Levin, Mr. Schock, and Ms. Roybal-
 Allard) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Supporting the role of the United States in ensuring children in poor 
  countries have access to vaccines and immunization through the GAVI 
                               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 contribute 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 public-private partnership 
        called the Global Fund for Children's Vaccine (now the GAVI 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 Alliance 
        model by requiring GAVI-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 the GAVI 
        Alliance were co-financing new and underused vaccines funded by the GAVI 
        Alliance and more than 20 countries are projected to graduate between 
        2016 and 2020, moving toward fully funding their national immunization 
        programs;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance has transformed the market for vaccines by pooling 
        demand from developing countries matched with secure, predictable 
        financing to make vaccines more affordable and supply more reliable, and 
        encouraging research and development of new vaccines;
Whereas as a result, the GAVI Alliance has played a critical role in increasing 
        the number of global vaccine manufacturers selling 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, 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), the GAVI 
        Alliance ensures that appropriate and affordable vaccines are available 
        throughout the developing world;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance 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 5 than any other disease;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance 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 polio, new and routine immunization programs in 
        implementing countries;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance 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, and other 
        donors and partners, the GAVI Alliance 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, the GAVI Alliance 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 the GAVI Alliance, 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 1 of the 3 most cost-effective solutions to advance 
        global health;
Whereas as one of the initial 6 donors, the United States has been an important 
        supporter of the GAVI Alliance 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 the GAVI Alliance'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;
Whereas in addition to this 3-year pledge, the United States contributed an 
        additional $90,000,000 to the GAVI Alliance in fiscal year 2011;
Whereas United States investment in the GAVI Alliance complements and enhances 
        the effectiveness of other bilateral and multilateral United States 
        investments in global health, particularly in child survival;
Whereas the GAVI Alliance 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, the GAVI Alliance 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 the GAVI Alliance needs donors to invest an additional $7,500,000,000 to 
        support developing countries' immunization programs from 2016 to 2020;
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, the GAVI 
        Alliance 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 to $100,000,000,000 in 
        economic benefits through health care savings and productivity gains: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) commends the GAVI Alliance, the Bill and Melinda Gates 
        Foundation, the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund 
        (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, the World Bank, civil 
        society, the private sector, faith-based organizations, the 
        international community, and implementing countries on the 
        progress that has been made on reducing child mortality through 
        the increased availability and distribution of vaccines;
            (2) affirms the United States continued support for the 
        purchase of vaccines for poor countries through the GAVI 
        Alliance as a cost-effective, efficient means to reduce child 
        mortality and as a critical component of meeting the United 
        States goal to end preventable maternal and child deaths;
            (3) supports the ideals and goals of the GAVI Alliance--
                    (A) accelerate equitable uptake and coverage of 
                vaccines;
                    (B) improve the effectiveness and efficiency of 
                immunization delivery;
                    (C) improve sustainability of national immunization 
                programs; and
                    (D) shape markets for vaccines and other 
                immunization products;
            (4) upholds that the United States is a critical donor in 
        its work with other donors to perform diplomatic outreach in 
        seeking additional funding for the GAVI Alliance in order to 
        leverage its commitment;
            (5) recognizes that the United States, in addition to being 
        an important donor, is a critical technical partner to the GAVI 
        Alliance and the impact of United States investments to the 
        GAVI Alliance is leveraged by providing direct technical 
        assistance to implementing countries and global bodies;
            (6) encourages the continued use of United States Agency 
        for International Development (USAID) maternal and child health 
        and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) global 
        immunization resources to strengthen local public health 
        capacity to introduce and sustain new and underutilized 
        vaccines, that are supported by the GAVI Alliance, through 
        routine immunization systems; and
            (7) encourages continued commitment and investment by the 
        United States Government and international donors, through the 
        GAVI Alliance, to the global effort to ensure that children in 
        developing nations have access to vaccines and immunizations.
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