The Financial Times headline sounds the alarm: “Fury at unspent funds for Sudan.” It seems that donor governments are furious at the World Bank for spending only $181 million out of the $524 million in donated funds from the fund it manages to support the recovery and development of local communities in south Sudan.

When standing on the shore line at Rufisque L’est, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Dakar, Senegal, it’s hard not to buy into apocalyptic climate change scenarios. The beach is gone. Wharves built by the French colonists, once linked to the shore, have been completely swept away, with just a few wooden pillars rising from the water as evidence of their existence. In one stretch, three city blocks, which included homes, warehouses, and a mosque, were pulled into the ocean.

President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address on Wednesday night at a time of disappointment and concern for the American people, largely centered on the slow pace of economic recovery and partisan gridlock in Congress. Thus, the bulk of the President's speech was devoted to domestic matters.

It’s now standard to wrap up the year with lists of ten: best films; greatest sporting moments; most influential people. In the spirit of a hopeful start to the New Year and decade, I propose a different sort of list: ten events we’d like to see in the world of humanitarian action in 2010. None of the mock headlines below herald an era of global peace and harmony. But each of these headlines could plausibly appear in the coming year, and Refugees International will be doing everything in its power to make them happen.

On October 23rd the cause of protecting internally displaced people made a major advance. At the conclusion of a Special Summit in Kampala, Uganda, the African Union (AU) approved the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. The Convention, to be known as the Kampala Convention, will come into effect within 30 days of ratification by 15 of the AU’s 53 member states.

Somalia may be the most difficult place to provide aid in the world. The needs are tremendous after years of conflict and drought. The central government controls a few square blocks of the capital and is under threat from an Islamist insurgency that includes both local and foreign elements. Infrastructure is badly degraded. In such a resource poor environment, aid itself has a value out of proportion to its actual cost.

Last week the United Nations made a decision that many of us thought impossible --- after three years of discussion the General Assembly agreed unanimously to consolidate four organizations into a single entity focused on promoting the rights and well-being of women world-wide and achieving gender equality. The decision merges the programs of four organizations --- the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women --- under the leadership of an under-secretary general.

I admit to cringing when I get an email invitation to participate in a meeting in the Sergio Vieira de Mello Conference Room at UNHCR. Or when I sit in a meeting in the Julia Taft Conference Room at Interaction. Certainly, Sergio and Julia participated in their share of meetings in their time --- how could they not have? But fundamentally they were humanitarians who imposed their wills on the world to make it a better place. Their legacies and conference rooms don’t mix.

I spent a night in Mogadishu this past March. It was less dramatic than it sounds. Two colleagues and I stayed at the base of the African Union peacekeeping force, AMISOM, which is reached by a back road directly from the airport. We didn’t dare venture into the city.