Jason Miller
Over the years, working in humanitarian aid across Africa and South America, I have seen plenty of examples of good intentions producing bad results. In some cases, the consequences have been devastating.
These stories don’t necessarily fit the adventure theme of this blog, but I’ve been asked to share more of them. My intention isn’t to paint humanitarian organizations in a bad light. Many do remarkable work, often under difficult circumstances. But I believe we can learn from our mistakes. If we want to serve people better and be good stewards of hard-earned donations, we need to be willing to admit when something hasn’t worked and reconsider where our efforts and resources might be better used.
I have hundreds of examples I could share. Just yesterday, someone offered me a shipping container full of new shoes to send to Kenya. Without getting into the details of why that might not be such a good idea, I’ll start with a story about mosquito nets.
I’ll leave the organization unnamed. It was one of the world’s largest aid organizations, and I have no reason to believe anyone involved intended to do harm. The problem, as I understand it, was that a solution developed from a Western perspective was introduced without fully considering how people might use the materials once they got home.
This particular story takes us to western Mozambique, to Tete Province and the Cahora Bassa District, along the Zambezi River.
A Solution With Unintended Consequences
Cahora Bassa District covers approximately 8,712 square kilometers, a substantial area where many people depend on local resources for their livelihoods. Fishing is an important source of food and income in communities along the Zambezi and its associated waterways.
Malaria has long been a serious problem in Mozambique, and distributing mosquito nets is an important part of efforts to prevent the disease. In this case, a major aid organization provided thousands of high-quality mosquito nets to local residents in an effort to protect them from malaria.
On paper, it sounded like a good plan. Give people mosquito nets, help protect families from mosquito bites, and reduce the risk of malaria.
But there was another side to the story.
Once the nets made their way back into the villages, some residents recognized that they could be used for something else: fishing.
For communities where fishing is part of everyday life, a net isn’t simply a medical item. It is also a potentially useful tool. The new nets were made from fine nylon mesh, and when joined together, they could be adapted for catching fish.
The problem was the size of the holes.
Traditional fishing nets, made and used locally for generations, often have larger mesh openings that allow small fish to escape. Fine mosquito netting catches much smaller fish, including juveniles that haven’t yet had the opportunity to grow and reproduce.
A net that was intended to protect human life could therefore be put to another use that threatened an important source of food.
When the Fish Don’t Get a Chance to Grow
According to the account I was given, the fine-mesh nets were used to catch enormous numbers of fish, including tiny fish that were too small to eat. Those were often discarded, while the larger fish were kept for food.
The immediate catch might have looked impressive, but there was a longer-term cost. If large numbers of young fish are removed before they reach maturity, fewer may survive to replenish the population. The consequences can extend beyond the people doing the fishing, affecting other communities that depend on the same fish stocks.
This isn’t simply a theoretical concern. Research elsewhere in Mozambique has documented the use of mosquito nets for fishing and the capture of juvenile fish, raising concerns about food security, fishing livelihoods, and the sustainability of local fisheries. A 2020 study examining mosquito-net fishing in northern Mozambique found that the practice removed substantial numbers of juvenile fish from coastal seagrass habitats. That research supports the broader concern, although it does not independently establish the specific events described in this Cahora Bassa account.
Eventually, as the story was related to me, the aid organization assessed what had happened and found that the nets were not being used as intended. The account also suggested that the fishing had harmed local fish supplies, while the expected improvement in malaria outcomes had not materialized to the extent hoped for.
I haven’t been able to independently verify the specific findings or the scale of the impact in Cahora Bassa, so I wouldn’t present those details as established statistics. But the underlying problem is real and has been documented in other parts of Mozambique.
The Lesson
The lesson here isn’t that we should stop providing aid. Far from it. Mosquito nets can save lives, and preventing malaria remains an important public health goal.
The lesson is that good intentions are not enough.
Before introducing a solution into a community, we need to understand the people who live there, how they earn a living, what resources they depend on, and how they might use what we provide. We need to ask questions, listen to local knowledge, and consider what could happen after the aid workers have left.
A project can look successful on paper and still produce consequences nobody anticipated. Supplies can be distributed, money can be spent, and reports can be written showing that targets were met. But did the project actually improve people’s lives? Did it create another problem? And were there better ways to achieve the same goal?
Those are questions we should be willing to ask, even when the answers are uncomfortable.
After years of working in humanitarian aid, I’ve come to believe that serving people well requires more than money, supplies, and good intentions. It requires humility, research, and a willingness to admit when our approach isn’t working.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is change direction, listen more carefully, and find a solution that makes sense to the people who will live with the results.
When Humanitarian Aid Goes Wrong: The Unintended Consequences
Copyright © 2026 by [D. Jason Miller (Kyalo)]
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