Robert Span Browne (born 1924[1] – August 5, 2004)[2] was an economist who founded African-American self-help programs.
[4] After 1961, he was project director for the Stokes-Phelps Fund and, until 1971, taught economics at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck.
[4] Browne founded the 21st-Century Foundation, which was formed in 1971. he was active in the economic development work in Cambodia and Vietnam.
[4] From 1980 to 1982, he was the first U.S. executive director of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
[4][3] He then was a senior research fellow at Howard University and, until 1991, staff director of a House subcommittee dealing with issues involving the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and Third World debt.