Blood-stained bodies lie on the ground. Bombs hurtle downward. A black helicopter gunship hovers menacingly overhead. When six-year-old Heba draws pictures, the only colours she uses are blood red and death black.

The little Syrian girl may not know it, but red and black also carry meaning in the financial world, symbolizing profit and loss. What millions of children like Heba do know is that the war has already cost them their childhoods. What the world should know is that the war is costing the entire region — both Syria and its neighbours — hundreds of billions of dollars, compromising the future for an entire generation of children.

The Cost of Conflict for Children, a report by World Vision and Frontier Economics, frames the Syrian conflict through an economic lens. While we have no tool to measure the cost of a destroyed childhood, we can calculate the economic losses for that child’s country. For Syria alone, the war has cost an estimated US$275 billion. Even if it ends this year, that cost will increase to up to $689 billion in terms of lost growth. That’s almost 100 times the amount required to meet refugee needs across the region.

That’s just for Syria. Now let’s look at the cost to its neighbours, those who have taken in millions of refugees. In Lebanon, real gross domestic product is nearly 23 per cent lower than it would have been without the war. This greatly depletes Lebanon’s ability to manage the needs of such a large influx of families. It also has a direct and tragic impact on Lebanese children and Syrian refugee children living in Lebanon, as only 48 per cent are able to access educational opportunities. How will they ever be able to return and rebuild their country?

We know that members of the global community have incurred their own costs in responding to the crisis, whether through humanitarian aid or military intervention. Yet it seems that neither these rising costs — nor soaring levels of human loss and suffering — have been enough to sustain a real push for lasting peace in Syria. Despite the valiant efforts of countries like Canada, international appeals for humanitarian aid remain chronically and substantially underfunded, while the global community’s pledges and budgets available to fund and fuel the conflict seem limitless. This approach is short-sighted, illogical and costly. There’s only one solution with the power to put an end to all of the costs associated with Syria’s conflict, and that’s peace.

It’s time for every country to address the question: what’s the bottom line in this conflict? Canada has opened its arms to 25,000 refugees and has been a generous humanitarian donor. Now is the time for it to invest in peace, and there are meaningful ways to do so.

First, Canada can offer its diplomatic clout to the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. It’s time for Canada to back the International Syria Support Group in its continuing efforts to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions concerning humanitarian access inside Syria, as the group works to secure full support of all parties in reaching long-lasting peace. Let’s not underestimate the influence of “quiet” diplomacy.

Second, Canada must continuously remind others that protection and access to humanitarian aid are a human right, not something to be slid across a bargaining table. Canadian leaders must reinforce with the global community that the protection of the civilian population, as well as unhindered humanitarian access to the millions of people in need, are both non-negotiable. Their use as bargaining chips in a conflict is simply unacceptable and is in direct violation of international humanitarian law.

Third, Canada must help all Syrian voices to be heard in the peace process, including those of children, youth and women. It’s the only way to ensure that outcomes of negotiations are sustainable for the people who will need to live with them afterward. Solutions must be inclusive of everyone’s needs.

We must look to children like Heba, who now see Syria in nothing but black and red, to show the world what’s needed to restore colour to their lives. It’s for these children that Canada must do everything in its diplomatic power to bring peace to Syria. The cost of doing less is simply too great.