The good news in development often gets buried, deep below wars and debt and disaster. But today, world leaders made bold new pledges to the GAVI Alliance in support of child vaccines, making the choice clear for reporters, press secretaries and live-tweeters alike: today was going to be a good news day.

David Cameron, Andrew Mitchell, Bill Gates and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, together with members of the GAVI board
In fact, in spite of tough economic times, donors collectively pledged $4.3 billion between now and 2015 — surpassing GAVI’s $3.7 billion funding gap — setting GAVI and its partners on the path toward saving nearly 4 million children’s lives in the next 5 years.
Some notable pledges from the donor pool:
For a full breakdown of who committed what, visit GAVI’s website.
Of course, as advocates and legislators know well, pledges made do not always equal money in the bank, and so today marks just the first, critical step in our efforts to improve access to new and underutilized vaccines.
Today we can celebrate, though, after world leaders have affirmed with their pledges what we’ve been campaigning on for months: investing in vaccines for the world’s poorest children is a smart, cost-effective way to save lives.
Thanks to ONE members for your hard work on behalf of this campaign. Stay tuned for more GAVI analysis and commentary from ONE over the coming days.
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
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14/06/2011 at 12:05 am
I must admit, I was a skeptic!
Until I saw Betsy at The Vision Movement I did not see the potential. Thank you to for Betsy increasing my awareness and congratulations to one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PfEZ4_mow8
14/06/2011 at 1:28 am
Thanks Erin for this summary,
one correction for Australia:
Australia previously committed to A$60 m over three years and at this pledging conference lifted this to A$200 m over the three years 2011-13. Thus the increase is more than three fold.
15/06/2011 at 8:19 am
I have worked in children’s church for many years in the past and seen some wondrous changes but they were few. This is absolutely fabulous news and literally brought tears to my eyes! From Melbourne Australia
25/06/2011 at 11:17 am
What matters to me is not what who donated but the intention, commitment,consistency and sincerity of purpose towards achiving the common goal of ONE International. It is everybody’s business, so lets do that which is wholesome to do. God bless us all.
09/07/2011 at 8:53 am
Most children’s in the third world countries are suffering and dying because of neglect.children’s are Gods blessings and future generation. let us work hard to achieve this.