Posted by: Sevaun Palvetzian
November 8, 2025

By Sevaun Palvetzian, President and CEO, UNICEF Canada

When governments speak of defence, peace and security, the conversation often centres on the military costs of defending a nation.

The recent federal budget put much ink into describing, and will add many dollars towards funding, our growing defence needs. But the budget was missing a critical part of the conversation about what it takes to build a secure world. The most enduring threats to stability today are not always linked to missile strikes or cyberattacks. Many have their roots in the disrupted lives of children.

Security forms its shape through many angles, and it is generally secured in the long-term. Security is built in the quality of classrooms, health centres and the availability of basic needs like food and shelter, not solely forged on army bases or in communiques with allies.

More than 80% of all humanitarian needs globally are driven by conflict. Every child denied education, nourishment, protection or healthcare today becomes a potential refugee, casualty or armed group recruit of tomorrow. Neglecting these children doesn’t make their suffering less real and it doesn’t save money.

An Upstream Investment in Stability

Security isn’t built in a vacuum or covered off by defence alone.  Part of the security equation is solved through preventing fragility. This means ensuring that fragile societies and the most vulnerable residents within them – children – aren’t forgotten on our priority list.

When education is interrupted, children are denied a safe space, important development growth and a sense of normalcy.  Countries with the largest numbers of children not accessing school are more prone to violent conflict.  A seminal study found that achieving universal access to primary school could reduce the likelihood of civil war by 50% and that increasing the enrolment of boys in secondary school from 30% to 81% could reduce the risk by almost two-thirds. Education plays an upstream role in conflict prevention, offering a path to stability.

For Canada — a country defined more by diplomacy than domination — this is not idealism; it’s strategy.  We’ve built a strong track-record as a nation showing up for children around the world in the moments they need us most. Canada was a global leader ensuring COVID-19 vaccines got in the arms of people living in low-and lower-middle-income countries. We’re a leader tackling child malnutrition globally.

Countries don’t forget when we’re there for them in their most pronounced moments of need – and neither should we. Because power isn’t just the ability to win wars; it’s also about helping prevent them in the first place.

Development Is One of the Smartest Forms of Defence

Global military spending now exceeds US$2.7 trillion, yet the number of children living amid conflict has climbed to 473 million — more than one in six worldwide. We simply cannot spend our way to a more secure world through military preparations alone. Peace is rarely imposed; more often, it is built over time with a layered set of investments, including education.

Supporting education and development in fragile states is not “soft power.” It is smart power — stabilizing communities before crises escalate, reducing displacement pressures so children and families don’t need to leave their homes in the first place, and strengthening the basic human infrastructure (schools, water systems, community health supports) which are the core foundations to any stable society.

Canada has an opportunity – and I’d argue obligation – to recognize that sustainable peace and stability includes investing in foreign aid. This has proven to be an effective form of support and conflict prevention by reducing the inherent drivers of instability.

Yes, our nation may reduce security risks in the medium and long term through investments in submarines and cyber-readiness, but the world becomes a safer place through vaccinated children and classrooms too.

Because when children are safe, can access learning and are the basics covered in their communities, social cohesion is strengthened. When families have healthcare and food, societies have stability to build on, not communities to flee. These are the essential but often overlooked part of global peace and security; the ‘quiet defences’ that no army can substitute for.

So yes, Canada needs to defend our borders and ensure we can contribute to what happens beyond them. But if our goal is building a more secure world, shouldn’t we do so with all the levers available to us? Investments in children, globally, is not a “tack on” budget item pursuing unrelated government objectives.  It’s one of the surest defences of peace we can build.