Nobel prize winner President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Malawi's President Joyce Banda top the bill at the Frontiers in Development Conference from 11-13 June and Hillary Clinton will kick things off at the Child Survival Call to Action from 14-15 June.

Nine month old Emabet about to receive her measles vaccination, in Ethiopia's Merawi province. Picture: Pete Lewis / DFID

Mandy Moore, Christy Turlington Burns and Ben Affleck will add a little glamour but also a ton of heartfelt commitment. And, only slightly less exciting if you are a "development insider", members of the GAVI Alliance Board including colleagues from DFID will meet at the Capitol Hilton from 12-13 June to review progress since the historic GAVI Pledging Conference in London one year ago when generous donors, led by Prime Minister David Cameron and Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, made unprecedented commitments to childhood immunisation.

Of course, everyone is wondering if President Obama might even make an appearance? Now, that would really help focus attention on important subjects like child and maternal mortality in the world's poorest countries.

To raise awareness about the huge number of children who die before they reach the age of five (7.6 million in 2010) (and because they are good sports), many of these global health advocates have sent photographs of themselves taken when they were five to USAID's excellent new website.

Even the media are getting in on the act with the likes of Judy Woodruff and Ray Suarez from PBS, Femi Oke of WNYC and CNN’s Kaj Larsen bringing professional TV-style moderation in order to keep the debates focussed and strategic.

And as they sit in their various sessions at the Hilton and Georgetown University, the great, the good and the glamorous will no doubt all be discussing and wondering "What does success really look like?" It’s a big question.  But, fortunately I know where they can find one answer at least.

It's in this short film produced by GAVI about Ghana's ambitious and unprecedented introduction of two vaccines at once – vaccines that have the power to help protect against the two diseases that kill more of the world's children before they reach their fifth birthday than any others.

So if, like so many people, you occasionally feel overwhelmed by the problems facing children and parents in the world's poorest countries, I encourage you to watch this film. It's guaranteed to vaccinate you against despair and give you some hope.

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Please note, this is a guest blog. Views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of DFID or have the support of the British Government.

 UK aid is changing lives - find out how and get involved on our Facebook page.

Have you ever been to the cinema and seen a trailer for a film that you previously had no interest in watching and then suddenly thought to yourself, "That is a movie I CANNOT MISS"?

That was the idea behind this three-minute film by a talented young filmmaker called Ryan Youngblood that I stumbled across in Kigalione day and I think he and producer Doune Porter more than fulfilled their brief.

On April 26, during WHO's first-ever World Immunization Week, Ghana will introduce not just one but two new vaccines into its immunisation programme. It's part of a global effort supported by DFID and one every Brit can be proud to support.

The pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines will protect infants against the leading causes of the two biggest killers of children in Ghana and throughout the developing world - pneumonia and diarrhoea.

The GAVI Alliance and our partners UNICEF and WHO are working with Ghana's Ministry of Health to plan a massive celebration in Accra at which the first children will be vaccinated.

Lifesaving: childhood vaccinations save lives

On the same day, halfway across the world, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, our friends at the UN Foundation will be launching the Shot@Life campaign to encourage the American public to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save children's lives around the world.

As you can imagine, back in Ghana our colleagues at the Ministry of Health are feeling more than a little pressure and this film brilliantly captures the careful, methodical planning process that is involved in introducing new vaccines into the national health programme.

It also portrays the skill, wit and energy that Ghanaian health professionals are investing in this extraordinary initiative.

Like the best trailers, our little film has all the right ingredients to make you want to know what happens next: handsome men, beautiful women, tragedy, suspense, despair, hope and raw determination!

Watch it now: you won't be disappointed.
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Please note, this is a guest blog. Views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of DFID or have the support of the British Government.

• The vaccines have been financed with contributions from GAVI donors including the UK, Italyand the US, and co-financed by the Government of Ghana.
• More than 400,000 Ghanaian children will be immunised against pneumococcal disease thanks to a US $2.6 million contribution by JP Morgan, matched by the UK through the GAVI Matching Fund for a total contribution of US $5.2 million.

UK aid is changing lives - find out how and get involved on our Facebook page.

Find out more about how DFID works with the GAVI Alliance and other private foundations.