While visiting in South Africa, I was informed that a law had been passed by the post apartheid government that dealt with the problem of overcrowding in schools in the black townships.
Since schools in white areas averaged around 20 students per class and the classes in black schools were sitting at 40+, the government made a law that class size had to be uniform across the country. Unfortunately, there were no additional classrooms available in the townships to allow the reduction in class size, so, to comply with the (basically well-meaning)law, the class size in white schools had to be doubled. I have no hard evidence that this is the case, it is simply anecdotal, but it rings true. Many well-meaning laws end up causing distress.

There are always challenges that come with trying to do good in a country (just ask any Peace Corps volunteer about this), especially when the nuances of other cultures aren't always so easy to understand. Philip Gourevitch's
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families has a chilling account about how much of the Western aid that poured into Rwanda after the 1994 massacres actually ended up helping sustain the Hutu militias that started the genocide in the first place. Of course, it's easier to criticize than to actually implement positive change -- but there are a lot of sloppy NGO's out there.