As a former soldier and police officer, I have seen for myself the ways that conflict and strife can tear people down, and experienced first-hand how people focused on a common good can work together to build healthy societies back up.

As Canada’s Minister of National Defence, I had the privilege of spending a week visiting Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo to learn more about how Canada can collaborate with these nations and contribute to conflict prevention and peace support operations.

After our new government was elected last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will be a responsible partner with the world. Mr Trudeau made it a priority to renew Canada’s commitment to United Nations peace operations.

Canada is a diverse country with a rich history of peacekeeping, which has taught us that we must understand what is happening on the ground in order to contribute to efforts that will result in positive outcomes. Today, the nature of conflict has changed, and so must the ways in which we conduct peace operations.

To gain this better understanding, I was accompanied on my trip by Roméo Dallaire, whom many know as a former three-star general who was in charge of the UN peacekeeping forces in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide, and is now a retired Canadian senator working to prevent the use of child soldiers through the Dallaire Initiative; Justice Louise Arbour, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and former president and CEO of the International Crisis Group; and Marc-André Blanchard, Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations.

Around the world, the nature of conflict is changing, so what we do to prevent, mitigate, and resolve conflict must change as well. Wars used to be between states, now they are often internal.

How do you keep the peace when there is no peace to keep? Nations face threats from violent extremists, threats that require a comprehensive response that encompasses military, political, humanitarian, and development efforts. As they seek education and jobs, young people are facing challenges that our generation could not imagine.

The old approach and solutions won’t work anymore. We need to think innovatively about how we move forward. To do this, we need to see the situation for ourselves. We need to speak directly to those who know best. We need to respect the knowledge and experience that they have, and learn from it.

We need to understand the root causes that cause conflict. In other words, we need the ground truth. This tour helped us ascertain that.

General Dallaire, Justice Arbour, Mr Blanchard and I learned a great deal this week. We had fruitful, informative discussions with our government counterparts. We listened to and asked questions of our colleagues at the African Union and United Nations.

We had an opportunity to learn from and thank individuals who are working to build up civil society, police officers who protect women and children from abuse, teachers and volunteers who educate the young, and doctors and nurses who heal the sick.

I was honoured that Roméo Dallaire accompanied me to Africa. He has done tireless work on child soldiers through the Dallaire Initiative. By addressing the war crime of recruitment and use of child soldiers, we can prevent conflict while protecting children.

Indeed, General Dallaire’s work is just one example of Canada’s long history of support to East Africa’s security and development. In education, health, agriculture and support to women and girls, the Canadian government and a large number of Canadian institutions have been working for decades with East African partners to improve the quality of life for the people of the region.

I left convinced that we must strengthen and expand that tradition of partnership. What I heard from organisations that have a long presence and commitment here, such as the Aga Khan Development Network, ICRC, and Unicef, is that we must partner with both government and civil society to create the conditions for East Africa’s long term peace, prosperity, and pluralism. And we heard that Canada has an important role to play.

Furthermore, we must avoid working in silos if we are to affect real change on the ground. We must address the root causes of conflict in order to find long-term solutions that sustain peace. These conversations were invaluable. What we saw, the discussions we had, and what we learned will help inform how the government of Canada can best contribute to future peace support operations.

I was a soldier for 26 years. I did one tour in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three in Afghanistan. In many contexts I saw how challenging circumstances were undermining military efforts to combat violent extremism.

While I fought to make the world a safer, more peaceful place, I also learned that the ultimate goal must be to prevent and reduce conflict. We must aim to avert crises before they reach a point that requires military intervention.

We must be willing to use the full spectrum of resources at our disposal – not just military force, but also trade and development. To do this we must understand not just the conflict in the country, but the dynamic in the region, and work together, as partners in peace.

Harjit S. Sajjan is Canada’s Minister of National Defence