Economic Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa (PDF)

Donald L Sparks, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of International Economics at the Citadel in Charleston, SC, USA (where he has been named MBA Professor-of-the-Year three times) and University Lecturer in International Business at the Management Center Innsbruck, Austria.

Dr Sparks has served as a Senior Consulting Associate in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the US Department of State. He has been a Fulbright Professor of Economics at the University of Swaziland, now Eswatini, and at the University of Maribor, Slovenia. He was also a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the University of Swaziland. In 2013 he was a Fulbright Specialist in Economics at the African Union Commission's Department of Economic Affairs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2019 went to the National University of Laos as a Fulbright Specialist. He was the Department Chairman and Visiting Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Before beginning his academic career, Dr Sparks served as the Regional Economist for Africa in the Office of Economic Analysis at the US Department of State in Washington, DC and as a Staff Assistant to Senator Ernest F. Hollings.

Dr Sparks has published widely, including authoring the `Economic Trends' chapter in Africa South of the Sahara (Routledge, annual) for each edition for the past 35 years. He has been a consultant for a number of international organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Council for Namibia, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

He received his MA and PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK, and his BA from the George Washington University, USA. Dr Sparks is married to Dr Katherine Saenger and they live in Charleston, South Carolina and Seefeld in Tirol, Austria. They have two grown children and one grandson.