Dr. Putman, a foreign service officer for the United States Agency for International Development, conducted doctoral research in the Baay Region of Somalia and also worked on various development projects between 1980 and 1983. Dr. Noor, a refugee from Somalia, works at the World Bank. He served at Somali National University as Vice President and as Dean of the College of Agriculture. He also served in the Somali government as Vice Minister for Agriculture. The section on the Somali language was written by Dr. David Zorc, a senior linguist at MRM, Inc., and Madina Osman, a Somali language consultant.
Many people read and commented on drafts of the manuscript.
We would also like to acknowledge Sarah Neal of the Center for Applied Linguistics for her valuable copyediting and proofreading assistance. Finally, we would like to thank the Bureau for Refugee Programs, U.S. Department of State, whose support made this guide possible.