The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) emphasize the importance of strengthening political, legal and organizational frameworks relating to tenure, as well as the provision of land administration services in Part 1, General Affairs (Chap. 4, 5 and 6) and in Part 5 (Land Administration). The Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF), for its part, makes similar references in Theme 1: Legal and Institutional Framework and Theme 4: Public Provision of Land Information.

As mentioned in the VGGT and LGAF, aspects such as non-discrimination, fair access for men and women, the rule of law, transparency, constant improvements and sustainability of processes are some of the key principles that LAIs should apply when providing the services they offer to various types of users. For this reason, it is considered that the key functions of land administration should include the following, among others:

• The efficient and inclusive registration of tenure rights
• The provision of complete, accessible information on tenure, differentiated by gender and ethnic group
• The fair and appropriate evaluation of tenure rights
• Transparent taxation to finance decentralized levels of public administration
• Regulated territorial planning
• Public land management
• Resolving land tenure disputes