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The detrimental impact of childcare institutions (CCIs), or orphanages, is well known. Despite deinstitutionalisation strategies in Uganda, CCIs remain the predominant intervention method employed by Western actors responding to the needs of children there. Reforming this approach requires contextualised critical understandings of the children’s experiences and perspectives of their institutionalisation, to reduce the misidentification and misappropriation of children as orphans. Therefore, operationalising the theoretical lens of Bourdieu within critical hermeneutic analyses, this article draws upon the narratives of 30 children living within an orphanage in Kampala, to enhance critical understandings of their experiences, perspectives, and behaviours throughout transition from home to an orphanage, via the streets of Kampala, illuminating how and why they come to be living there. Guided by Ricœur’s critical hermeneutic approach, the study found that poverty drives children to the streets in search of economic opportunity and organisations perceived to offer access to basic services of which they are deprived, such as education. Education, as a form of cultural capital, is understood amongst participants as ensuring an elevated position within society, or a means of overcoming poverty. Within this transition from home to the orphanage, whilst on the streets, socially acquired dispositions and harmful stereotypes contribute to the manifestation of the ‘street kid’ construct, for which the children are marginalised, and experience physical and sexual abuse. Girls are most at risk, whereby gender inequality contributes to their exploitation and the normalisation of rape. However, for the children entry into a CCI from the streets means relinquishing agency and social capital that is integral to them, often.

The deprivation, adversity, and lack of protection for children on the streets of urban Uganda are well known; as is the reality that most of their support is facilitated by Western Missionary operated, non-government organisations (NGOs). However, their approach is problematised as ineffective, oppressive, and colonial. Yet there is a dearth of research from the children’s perspectives, capturing the meaning of such actors’ interventions within their lifeworld’s, and no such literature within the Ugandan context. Therefore, this case study focuses on the ‘Mzungu Phenomenon’, a theme unearthed from critical hermeneutic analyses of the life stories of 30 former street children within an orphanage in Kampala, Uganda. The Mzungu phenomenon refers to the meaning and influence of the Western Missionaries and volunteers that feature within the children’s experiences, captured within their narratives. Underpinned by Ricœur’s narrative philosophy, this study illuminates and problematises the way in which Western NGO actors feature within the children’s lifeworld’s, and the wider ramifications from postcolonial, and postcolonial feminist theoretical perspectives. This includes the perpetuation of colonial legacies, ideologies, and praxis, that contribute to disempowerment for children, their families, and their communities, and the dual oppression of women. Therefore, this piece argues that despite a need to enhance child protection measures in Uganda, the current approaches that do not align with national and international rights-based policies must be further critically examined, challenged, and reformed, to ensure the wellbeing of the children.

This paper employs the R software in identifying the most suitable ARMA model for forecasting the growth rate of the exchange rate between the US dollar and a unit of the British pound. The data is systematically split into two distinct periods identified as the in-sample period and the out of sample period. The best model selected for the in-sample period is used to make forecasts for the out of sample period. Both traditional and rolling window forecasting methods are employed. This research uses the MSE, MAE, MAPE and correct sign prediction criterion to compare the forecasting performance of the rolling window forecasting method and the traditional forecasting method. The results obtained suggest that the traditional forecasting method performs better judging by MSE, MAE and MAPE. In other words, the traditional forecasting method is more suitable for predicting the magnitude (i.e., size) by which the US /UK exchange rate changes over time. However, the results also suggest that the rolling window forecasting method performs better based on the correct sign prediction criterion. In other words, the rolling window forecasting method is more appropriate for predicting the changes in the sign of the US /UK exchange rate. 

 This paper utilizes the Least Squares Dummy Variables (LSDV) technique in investigating the effect of financial depth on economic growth within a sample of middle-income countries, over the period 2005–2017. The research finds that financial depth has a negative impact on real GDP growth within middle-income countries. This result is robust to the use of alternative measures of financial depth, the use of per capita GDP growth as a proxy for economic growth, the inclusion of dummy variables to control for the 2007–2010 global financial crisis, the exclusion of countries with high average growth as well as across income levels. Based on its findings, this study recommends the need for robust regulations to ensure that the credit facilities of domestic financial institutions are channeled towards productive investments rather than debt servicing.