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 10,000,000 children died each year before reaching their 5th birthday; Whereas, prior to 2000, it was common for new lifesaving vaccines to take up to 15 years to be introduced in the world’s poorest countries; Whereas access to routine immunization and vaccines protects children from deadly but preventable disease and contributes 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 Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, government donors, developing countries, the private sector (including the vaccine industry), faith-based organizations, 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 scaleup of these vaccines into routine immunization systems in the world’s poorest countries; Whereas, since 2000, with support from the United States, and other donors and partners, the GAVI Alliance has supported country-led vaccine initiatives in 73 countries to support the immunization of more than 760,000,000 additional children and will avert an estimated 13,000,000 deaths in the world’s poorest countries; Whereas the financing of vaccines by the GAVI Alliance has been a major factor in reducing the number of deaths due to vaccine preventable disease by as much as 70 percent since 2000; Whereas country ownership and sustainability are at the core of the GAVI Alliance model, which requires GAVI-eligible countries to contribute domestic financing to a portion of their vaccine costs and directly invest in immunizing their children