The world’s richest countries acknowledged the need to address a serious funding gap for maternal and child health worldwide with the launch of the Muskoka Initiative on June 26^th at the G-8 summit in Canada.

G-8 host country Canada announced earlier this year that it was putting women and children’s health on the summit’s agenda, in the face of today’s dreadful realities – every year up to 500,000 women die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth and 9 million children die from preventable causes. The resulting Muskoka Initiative pledges $7.3 billion from G8 and key partners in new funding over five years for maternal, newborn and child health. Canada committed C$1.1 billion in new and additional funding over the next five years, which builds on existing commitments of $1.75 billion.

This aid package comes as the evolving economic crisis makes it difficult for the usual big donors and government to increase their development aid for health. Although projects such as MASSIVEGOOD have been launched to seek alternative funding for global health, advocacy groups have been pushing hard for increased funding from governments. We recently met with one such organization, Global Action for Children, which has been on the frontline of child health for many years.

Their new campaign, “The Stars Are Aligned,” puts the emphasis on vaccination, which has the potential to really make a difference in child health care in developing countries. We came back with this interview and high hopes for the future:

MASSIVEGOOD: We saw that Global Action for Children has a new campaign to promote investments in vaccines and child survival called ‘The Stars Are Aligned.’ Tell us more about it.

Global Action for Children: Bill Gates really said it best earlier this year when he called this the “Decade for Vaccines.” There are so many different factors that are lining up that make now the moment for the world’s leaders to invest in global childhood immunizations. The costs of vaccines are dropping, there are great new vaccines being used in some of the world’s poorest countries, and last year we set a new world record for global vaccinations. More than 4-in-5 children born last year received all the routine immunizations scheduled for their first year of life.

MG: So you think vaccines are the solution to our achieving the child survival Millennium Development Goal?

GAC:  Vaccines are a key part of a package of Child Survival interventions that every child needs access to in order to stay healthy – vitamin A and oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhea are others. There are a number of proven and simple interventions to keep a child alive and their mothers healthy. We would like to see the U.S. and global community greatly expand investment in these critical programs, including vaccines. This year vaccines will prevent about 2.5 million child deaths. That’s almost five children a minute. If we reach 90 percent of all children with every vaccine we have, then 2 million more children under-five will survive each year.

MG: You mentioned new vaccines. What are they?

GAC: Two new vaccines are just starting to be introduced in developing countries to take aim at the two biggest killers of children around the world – pneumonia and diarrhea.

Pneumonia causes more than 14. 5 million serious cases of disease globally and more than 800,000 deaths each year among children under five. In addition, for those children who are lucky enough to survive, many are left with mental disabilities, seizures or deafness. The Pneumoccocal vaccine has been associated with 39 percent reduction in hospital visits due to pneumonia from any cause—a huge step forward in the fight against this terrible killer.

Rotavirus causes 2 million severe cases of diarrhea each year among young children and kills over 500,000 a year. But again, the good news is that the new Rota vaccine has been associated with a 95 percent reduction in clinic visits and hospitalizations from rotavirus diarrhea.

Together, these two vaccines are incredible developments in the field of global health—and on top of that, they are a good investment. A study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that by keeping children healthy and in school, immunizations help extend life expectancy and the time spent on productive activity. So vaccines are a win-win for everyone.

MG: There’s something almost magical about a vaccine isn’t there?

GAC: Yes, exactly! Vaccines are, for lack of a better word, ‘miracles’ for children and humanity. That is why the images in our ‘The Stars Are Aligned for Vaccines’ campaign aren’t typical photos of children or needles. We chose a picture of a bursting supernova from NASA’s Hubble space telescope instead because it really conveys the power of vaccines that can save (and are saving) millions of children’s lives worldwide.