The Associated Press has reported that former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who is now the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, announced the appointment Tuesday of Harvard professor Paul Farmer, a pioneer in community health treatment for the world’s poor, as his deputy.

Clinton said that Farmer’s "credibility both among the people of Haiti and in the international community will be a tremendous asset" to their work in Haiti, according to the U.N. News Centre.

Farmer had been considered to be the top candidate to head USAID until last week when "several Hill aides and people in the foreign aid community" said Farmer was no longer being tapped for the job, according to the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report and CQ Today.