The Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences Sunday said the United Nations (UN) is the only institution capable of overseeing democratic reforms that would help countries all over the world weather the current financial crisis.

Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences and a professor at Columbia University in New York, said the UN is the only institution with the “legitimacy” to oversee democratic reforms of the global economic system. Stiglitz heads the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, informally known as the “Stiglitz Commission.” The commission, convened by the UN General Assembly, reviews workings of the global financial system and suggest steps to be taken by the 192 UN-member countries to secure a more sustainable and just global economic order.

Stiglitz said the UN has a crucial role to play in addressing the roots of the downturn and in reshaping the global economy into a more fair and sustainable system. “As this is a global crisis, a small group of industrialized countries are ill-equipped to deal with it,” Stiglitz said.

“There are 192 countries in the world, [and] 20 is a small percentage,” he added, referring to the Group of 20 (G20) industrialized countries. “Obviously what is necessary to respond to the crisis is not a G20 but a G192,” Stiglitz said.

The Nobel Prize winner, however, underscored the need to pay closer attention to developing countries, warning developed countries to veer away from protectionism as it can slow down global recovery from the current financial turmoil.

Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged countries to give more economic opportunities to women to cushion the effects of the global economic crisis.

The UN has also urged more multilateral agreements that would regulate migration as 60 million migrant workers more are expected to be affected by the global financial crisis by the end of the year.

The Philippines is the third country that contributes biggest in the services sector, after China and India.