The 68th United Nations General Assembly has designated the 5th of December as World Soil Day and declared 2015 as the International Year of Soils. The FAO Global Soil Partnership (GSP) Secre­tariat will serve as the Secretariat of the International Year of Soils and will establish an organizing committee composed by willing partners in order to prepare a joint plan of activities for the year. The GSP goal is to make IYS 2015 a memorable year demonstrating that the soils community can really contribute to the efforts for food security, hunger eradication, climate change adaptation, poverty reduction and sustainable development.