ENSince the 1990s, the development of the early childcare and education (ECEC) system in Lithuania has undergone dynamic shifts. Supply and demand for these services which decreased at the beginning of the 1990s, was followed by recovery, but also by significant urban-rural differentiation of the trend. The childcare provision is acknowledged as the goal of both national and local level policy, but the institutional system in Lithuania is very decentralized which exacerbates territorial diversity. Currently, the ECEC system is expanding in urban areas and the role of private actors is growing. This results in contradictory social investment outcomes: growing participation yet unequal educational opportunities. [From the publication]