Providing practical support for the Bali Process

The RSO was established in 2012 to provide technical support to Bali Process Members and to strengthen cooperation on refugee protection and international migration, including trafficking in persons, people smuggling and related transnational crime.
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Cooperation and Dialogue
The RSO is the only cooperation mechanism of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region—delivering practical and technical support to Bali Process Members and Bali Process Working Groups to address people smuggling, trafficking in persons, and related transnational crime. This includes supporting Member States through a whole-of-government approach, to improve border and migration management, protection of vulnerable persons and responses to transnational crime. The RSO brings practitioners across Member States together through a regular programme of training activities, events, workshops and roundtables, designed to help Member States stay ahead of new and emerging issues and to work collaboratively to develop responses and solutions.
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Working together with Member States and in support of the Bali Process working groups, the RSO develops resources such as guides, policy papers, thematic briefs, and training materials and undertakes or commissions research on priority and emerging challenges. The RSO is uniquely positioned to utilise the Bali Process convening power to bring together Members to address regional challenges, and subsequently coordinate responses to counter people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crime.
The RSO welcomes suggestions for collaboration and ideas for new activities and projects from Member States – particularly from law enforcement officers, border and immigration officials, policy makers, judicial personnel and counter-trafficking and migration practitioners.
Our Core Purposes

Our Core Purposes

The RSO core purposes are to support Bali Process Members and Working Groups by:

1. Ensuring we are responsive to Bali Process Members and Working Groups.

2. Developing and delivering fit-for-purpose operational capacity-building activities relevant to the Bali Process’ mandate.

3. Providing support in policy development and promoting best practice to improve aspects of migration management, and responses to people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crime.

4. Actively engaging and promoting the RSO’s work to partners and dialogues outside the Bali Process structure.

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Capability Development

Capability Development

The RSO supports Bali Process Members to engage in dialogue, strengthen cooperation, and to translate Bali Process commitments into action and real-world impact—through knowledge transfer, capacity-building and the sharing of information and best practice. The RSO is a unique cooperation mechanism that draws on policy knowledge, technical expertise and operational experience from Bali Process members and other key stakeholders.
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Thematic Areas
Thematic areas of focus for the RSO include countering people smuggling and trafficking in persons, irregular migration, related transnational crime and the use of technology in these crimes. The RSO brings Member States together across these areas through training activities, events, workshops and roundtables, supporting dialogue, and policy development and coordination.
Operational Capacity Building
The RSO works with regional partners to support the knowledge and skills development of operational personnel across the Bali Process membership, including law enforcement officers, border and immigration officials, maritime officers, government officials and wider practitioners in countering trafficking in persons and people smuggling.
Research and Regional Trends
A focus on research and enquiry enables the RSO to support Bali Process Member States to identify regional priorities relating to irregular migration trends, and to develop strategies to enhance regional awareness and improve the knowledge base.
Supporting the Bali Process membership

Supporting the Bali Process membership

The RSO engages proactively with Bali Process members and Working Groups to support strong relationships and networks in the region, and to ensure our work reflects and is responsive to needs and priorities set by the Bali Process membership.

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RSO Documents

RSO Documents

Find out more about the RSO through this library of key documents, which includes the RSO Strategy and Annual Reports, previous issues of our Quarterly Newsletter RSO Highlights, and a library of Outcome Statements from RSO events.

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Meet the Team

Meet the Team

Find out more about the team members who make up the RSO. Day to day operations are overseen by two RSO Co-Managers from the Australian and Indonesian Governments, with the wider team drawn from across the Bali Process membership and further afield.

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Secondments to the RSO

Secondments to the RSO

The RSO Secondment Programme aims to support strengthening of technical capacity across Member States, and allows Member States to share good practices and high-level capacities through and with the RSO. 

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Governance and Capability

Governance and Capability

A focus on governance and capability ensures the RSO has appropriate structures and processes in place to enable good decision making, manage risk and enable the RSO meet its objectives. The RSO operates with strategic guidance from the Bali Process Senior Official Co-Chairs, and Senior Officials in the Governments of Australia and Indonesia. Day to day operations are overseen by two RSO Co-Managers from the Australian and Indonesian Governments.

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