Civil Society Regional Consultations are held every two years, subject to availability of funds, in conjunction with the FAO Regional Conferences which are held in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Near East. These consultations give CSOs the opportunity to build dialogue with FAO Member Nations and to make recommendations regarding ongoing collaboration with FAO.

The last series of civil society regional consultations were organized in 2004 by the International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, with the support of the FAO Regional Offices and the FAO unit responsible for cooperation with civil society.

About 300 organizations participated overall in the five regional consultations, representing farmers, rural workers, Indigenous Peoples, artisanal fisherfolk, women, youth and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from approximately 100 countries. In addition, a total of 20 sub-regional and national consultations were held to feed into the regional consultations. The participants identified issues crucial to each region such as access to land and the role of farmers in agricultural research, shared these views through a small delegation to the FAO Regional Conferences, and established working groups on key topics such as agroecology and the impact of trade on food sovereignty.