 The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation has just finished its pledging conference.
GAVI received a total of $4.3b in pledges, well in excess of the $3.7b that they were aiming for.
The biggest contributions came from the UK government at $1.3b, and the Gates Foundation at $1b. Norway and the USA made large contributions, as did Australia (as we reported last night).
Below the headlines though, there's some exciting developments. Brazil and Korea made pledges. An increasing number of private foundations pledged too. You can see a full breakdown of GAVI's pledges here.
This isn't just a case of rich helping poor - it's a case of global solidarity where there's strong recognition that the health of children everywhere matters to all of us.
This overwhelming support for GAVI demonstrates that even in tough economic times, there's space to do the right thing.
As one of the many organisations who have campaigned to support GAVI's life-saving work, thank you.
But remember, there is still much to be done.
We must remain vigilant and ensure that the pledges become cheques, and the cheques become results.
We must hold our governments to account for these promises, and hold GAVI to account to ensure that they're getting the greatest possible value for money. Oxfam and MSF have asked some tough questions about the effectiveness and efficiency of GAVI, and we need to welcome these as an essential step to ensuring accounability.
We must remember that GAVI supports only a few vaccines - there's still a funding gap in the fight to end polio - and that vaccines are just a small part of the bigger movement for global health, which in turn is part of the bigger movement to end extreme poverty.
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