Britain and Bill Gates joined forces yesterday to pledge more than half of the $3.7 billion sought to vaccinate nearly 250 million children against preventable diseases.
Prime Minister David Cameron told a donors' conference in London that Britain would contribute a further £814 million ($1.3 billion, 920 million euros) to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), an aid group backed by the Microsoft tycoon.
Cameron said the extra funds would help treat 80 million children against pneumonia and diarrhoea, and save 1.4 million lives.
Gates followed Cameron's pledge by saying his charitable foundation would commit an additional one billion dollars over five years.
It is expected that by the end of the one-day summit donations should exceed the $3.7 billion target.
Cameron said: "Today we come together because we have the chance to save another four million lives in four years.
"Frankly, the idea of children dying from pneumonia and diarrhoea should be absolutely unthinkable in 2011.
"But for many parents in the developing world it is a devastating reality."
The pledges have gone a long way towards making up the $3.7-billion funding shortfall as GAVI aims to immunise 243 million more children and avert four million deaths by 2015.
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