In the war to fight poverty - the first and most elemental of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals - it's hard to imagine halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 without doing more to understand and address the consequences of conflict itself.

It is no surprise that armed conflict contributes to poverty. Wars leave people without homes, food or sources of income and often create large numbers of refugees.

Farmers, in particular, are forced to leave their land or neglect their crops and livestock in fear for their personal safety.