Burundi is emerging from a long civil war which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. One of the consequences of the war has been the proliferation of small arms and light weapons among the civilian population, on a hitherto unprecedented scale. The government, civil society, and Burundi’s partners are aware of this problem and believe that lasting peace will not be restored while these arms remain in the hands of civilians. The Small Arms Survey (Geneva, Switzerland) and the Ligue Iteka (Bujumbura, Burundi), supported by the UN Development Programme, Burundi (UNDP) and Oxfam NOVIB (Dutch affiliate of Oxfam) (The Hague, Netherlands), decided to carry out an exhaustive study of the problems associated with small arms and light weapons in Burundi. The aim of this project is to contribute to the formulation of policy that the government intends to introduce to combat the proliferation of these weapons. The study is based on a number of different methodological tools, including a survey of 3,000 households in six provinces, and an analysis of statistics from the UN, the Ligue Iteka, and MSF-Belgium (medical statistics from its Minor Injuries Centre (the Centre des Blessés Légers, or CBL). Further information was drawn from a two-day workshop in which ex-combatants affiliated to seven former armed groups took part.