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 five 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 staff in London!

According to a piece in the Christian Science Monitor, the village is an experiment in egalitarianism in an otherwise traditional society, a community where education is emphasized, women are given three months maternity leave from work responsibilities, and men join the women in cooking and weaving, traditionally female activities. Awra Amba’s vision of women’s empowerment, the third UN Millennium Development Goal, has attracted increasing attention internationally:

“Government officials and members of parliament, sheikhs and priests, and local and foreign nongovernmental organization workers have made the trip via a rocky road only accessible with a four-wheel-drive vehicle to see the success for themselves.

“I was completely captivated by my visit to the community,” says Ambassador Tim Clarke, head of the European Union delegation to Ethiopia. “I regard it as the model for the world community on how gender issues should be treated. I have come across nothing else like it anywhere in Africa – and indeed the world. I am using it to inspire the work of my office here on gender mainstreaming and empowerment of women.”

-Porter McConnell

Take a look at great news from Kenya the other day. During the past five years, child deaths from malaria were cut by more than 40 percent!

But what’s also astonishing is the way this result–which means millions of children saved–was achieved: by simply handing out mosquito nets. Kenya and international organizations gave out 13.5 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets, meaning that 52% of children in Kenya now sleep under nets, up from 5% in 2003.

When you hear the staggering figures (up to 2.7 million Africans die of malaria each year, 75 percent of them children, tens of millions suffer chronically from the disease) the problem can be overwhelming, too massive to relate.

But as the ONE Campaign is telling America’s leaders and the news from Kenya proves, there are effective and affordable solutions that we can take on right now that will literally mean the difference between life and death for the poorest people in the world. Yes, the problems are huge and ending them may sound like a dream. But when countries focus on proven solutions, like delivering mosquito nets, big things happen, like saving millions of children and ending a disease.

-Steve Wilson