The joint bid from the cities in New Brunswick has been recommended as the host by the Advisory Committee of Jeux de la Francophonie at a meeting in Abidjan, the host for the 2017 event.

They were chosen ahead of another Canadian city, Sherbrooke in Quebec, and Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory in the Caribbean. 

The Permanent Council of La Francophonie are due to make an official decision at a meeting in Paris on April 7. 

The New Brunswick Government has estimated the Games will cost CAD$15 million (£8 million/$11 million/€10 million) to host the events and plans to split the cost between the Federal, Provincial and Municipal Governments.

The economic impact to the region is estimated at up to CAD$50 million (£27 million/$38 million/€34 million). 

It will be the second time that the Games have been staged in Canada since they were launched in Moroccan cities Casablanca and Rabat in 1989.

Ottawa-Gatineau jointly staged the event in 2001. 

The Francophonie Games are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the Francophonie, mostly French speaking nations and is based upon the Commonwealth Games.

The event is open to athletes and artists of the 55 member countries, three associate member nations and 12 observer nations of the Francophonie. 

Canada is represented by three teams: Quebec, New Brunswick and another team representing the rest of the country.

The Belgian team is restricted to athletes from the French-speaking areas of the country.

At the last event, staged in Nice in 2013, 2,700 athletes from 54 countries took part.

There were 10 sports on the programme, including Para-athletics and African wrestling, and 12 cultural activities, ranging from digital creation to puppetry. 

The centrepiece of a Games in Moncton-Dieppe would be the Stade Moncton Stadium, built at a cost of CAD$17 million (£9 million/$13 million/€12 million) to host the International Association of Athletics Federations World Junior Championships in 2010.

"This is a huge deal - any time the region or the Province can host an international event it is definitely a big deal," Isabelle LeBlanc, director of communications with the City of Moncton, told CBC.

"Les Jeux de la Francophonie are quite unique I must say compared to some of the other events that we've hosted in the past.

"There is a sporting component of course...but there's also an artistic component.

"We've got everything covered and that's the beauty of our bid I think is that we had no need to build any infrastructure."