Disaster risk reduction policy and practice have emphasized the importance of engaging disaster-prone communities in the creation and use of data to improve resilience. However, there is scant empirical evidence about how actions aimed at strengthening the community capacity can improve the recovery process after a disaster. To fill this gap, this article analyses the effectiveness of actions aimed at strengthening governance through the generation of community data in a post-disaster recovery scenario of the self-built El Pacífico neighborhood, located at the hillslopes of the rural-urban border of Comuna 8, Medellín (Colombia). We analysed the written minutes and other documents related to the response and recovery committee created after this event (called “Mesa de Atención yRecuperación”). Our analysis shows that there were no clearly defined procedures in Medellín for engaging the affected communities in the recovery from disaster scenarios. However, it also shows that previous activities of capacity strengthening supported by our project have been effective in empowering community members to have their voices heard and make post-disaster recovery efforts more equitable, and thus can serve as guidelines for future policy and practice in disaster risk reduction.