The Global Alcohol Policy Conference, which is held annually, took place from 13 to 15 February 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand. The conference serves as a platform to discuss important milestones for global alcohol control efforts following on from the endorsement of the WHO Global Strategy on Alcohol in 2010. This year, regional contextualization during the conference provided an opportunity to present the situation in the Region and the unique challenges stemming from the sociocultural factors leading to paucity of hard data to plan and implement actions in the 10 identified target areas at the national level.