OECD calls on rich nations to help poorest as aid falls

Paris-based organisation says development assistance to impoverished countries plunged 16% last year, despite pledges from ministers to provide more aid

The west's leading thinktank has urged wealthier countries to step up and help the world's poorest, after revealing that aid to the most impoverished nations fell by a sixth in 2014.

An annual assessment of overseas development assistance from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris found that aid to the least developed nations stood at $25bn (16.7bn) last year - a 16% drop from 2013.