Hundreds of thousands of poor people will go without life-saving medicines and many more children will miss out on school because of the first cuts in global aid since 1997, Oxfam warned today as the OECD published its annual report showing how much donors give to poor countries.

Oxfam said the figures showed the importance of the UK sticking to its commitment to meet the target of giving 0.7 per cent of national income in aid next year. The OECD’s figures show a surprise fall in UK aid of $100m in real terms or 0.8 per cent between 2010-11.